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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30081021">Harry Potter and The Lost Child</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pvander409/pseuds/Pvander409'>Pvander409</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - The Story After The Story [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Auror Harry Potter, Canon Compliant, Fix-It, Harry Potter &amp; Ron Weasley Friendship, Harry Potter Next Generation, Married Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Married Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Minister for Magic Hermione Granger, Multi, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, POV Albus Severus Potter, POV Harry Potter, POV Original Character, POV Original Female Character, Post-Canon, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Professor Neville Longbottom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:13:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>55,786</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30081021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pvander409/pseuds/Pvander409</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Potter is a grown man and the Head of a Department in the Ministry. His son, Albus, starts attending Hogwarts and defies all expectations. Before long, a new mystery unfolds and a potential heir to the Dark Lord is mentioned in a prophecy. This story delves into the lives of Harry Potter and his friends after the original books. New characters, magic, and plots unravel.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - The Story After The Story [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2213238</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Duel in the Desert</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi there! thanks for checking out this story!</p><p>A few disclaimers before we begin:</p><p>1. This is a fix/rewrite of the story in The Cursed Child (the plot will draw from the play, at least initially, but there will be no Delphi/time travel, out of character behaviour, etc.). Though it may seem like I'm just "copying" the Cursed Child, trust me I am not. This is a new story that is meant to fix/replace it and it will be similar in some ways but very different in others.</p><p>2. I have added a few new characters to the mix.</p><p>3. Without spoiling: don't assume anything because you've watched/read the play and don't trust everything you read. The story is meant to deliver the perspective of the POV character in each chapter. This is a mystery book so don't take things at face value!</p><p>3. All the rights to the Harry Potter/Wizarding World franchise belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment. I do not claim any rights to the characters, locations, descriptions, etc. presented in this work which are not of my own invention. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fanfiction and all in good fun.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He was pulled into a suffocating whirlpool of colour and sound. The young wizard had yanked him forcefully and suddenly into it. The bald man tried to pull away, but the young man’s grip was too strong for him to break. When they finally landed, the taste of sand and salty earth had filled his mouth. He got up slowly, taking in his surroundings with squinted eyes. It was blindingly bright and very hot. The snake-faced man was surrounded by towering red sandstone buttes, yellow sands, and tall cacti which sprouted from the ground over great distances. He was not in Massachusetts anymore.</p><p>            ‘Do you like it here?’ asked the young wizard, ‘I figured we should relocate our little duel to a safer location, so I apparated us to Arizona.’</p><p>            He scoffed at his opponent. It mattered not where he had chosen to die.</p><p>            ‘So noble of you to make sure I do not harm innocent bystanders or any of your little MACUSA friends,’ uttered Mortedigne.</p><p>            ‘Oh, do not assume I am overconcerned for the safety of my peers, Guillaume,’ said the wizard, ‘I merely brought us here so I could duel you with no interruption. You see, Guillaume, I am going to kill you today.’</p><p>            As he said these words, he sounded calm and polite, yet his eyes were burning with fury. And, for the first time that day, Mortedigne felt nervous and angry. It was not only for the cheek of using his common forename but for the fact that this insultingly young wizard had held his own against him. He, Mortedigne, the greatest wizard since Voldemort himself. The man who had walked the path of the Dark Lord so closely, only to have his Horcruxes destroyed by those meddling Aurors and this young man, this boy.</p><p>            Of course, he had not dared set foot in Britain. Potter and his cronies were always on alert when it came to dark wizards. His native France had been the base of his operations. His ever-growing army of supporters, some of them fresh out of Beauxbatons, had all flocked to him as the man who would finally rid this world of mudbloods, traitors, and muggles. But those British Aurors were constantly at his heels. It seemed Potter was on the lookout for any signs of a would-be-Voldemort, even beyond his home country. He was forced to flee to America, where he first encountered this boy; another Briton, those did seem to take the most offence to his brand of magic. Yet this one was different, he appeared to be unbothered, and even bored at times, by the crimes Mortedigne had committed. He and his merry band of youngsters had stripped him of his final two Horcruxes with an alarming ease. He would not have it. This boy, barely four years out of Hogwarts, had humiliated him for the last time.</p><p>            ‘You would stoop so low, for me?’ asked Mortedigne, ‘Only because I killed your little friend?’.</p><p>            ‘Precisely,’ said the wizard.</p><p>            And with one quick flick of his wand, he sent a pillar of flames raging toward Mortedigne, who quickly turned the pillar into water and aimed it back at its original conjurer. The wizard sent it back as an enormous black snake and Mortedigne had to quickly dive out of its way. He sent a Killing Curse at the wizard but, as he did before, he blocked it with relative ease. A bright screen of light red and gold was conjured from between his hand and his wand and, as the Killing Curse hit it, it shattered, and the wizard stumbled backwards slightly. Mortedigne laughed his cold high laugh.</p><p>            ‘This is amazing! I have never seen anything like it! You block the Killing Curse as if it were nothing at all!’ he said.</p><p>            ‘A charm of my own invention. Inspired by the curious case of Harry Potter,’ said the young man as he aimed another curse at his opponent. Mortedigne blocked it and proceeded to scream ‘Crucio!’. The wizard jumped aside and aimed another stream of fire at Mortedigne, who apparated out of the way and behind the wizard. The wizard caught on quickly and turned around to face him again as Mortedigne sent another Killing Curse at him.</p><p>            ‘Blocked again! You’ll need to start getting more creative if you want to have a chance at defeating me you cheap, snivelling, off-brand Voldemort imitation!’ he yelled.</p><p>            Mortedigne let out a scream of anger as he sent a jet of rubble and sand at the wizard, who turned it to a swarm of bees which sped back at Mortedigne. He sprang out a wall of fire to block the coming horde. The wizard appeared out of the flames and yelled ‘Diffindo!’. Mortedigne blocked it as the young man advanced on him slashing his wand furiously and with amazing speed. They duelled fiercely as the sun sank to their west. Neither could overcome the other, their wands slashing the hot air with such speed that they were barely visible. The two wizards bellowed curses at each other which lit the desert air like wildfire. The boy kept taunting him as they battled. He was getting angry at this arrogant fool; it was time to end this.</p><p>            ‘Let’s see if you can block that shall we?!’ he called and screamed the incantation. A huge jet of intensely hot flames shot out of his wand. Fiendfyre was encircling the wizard, taking the shapes of giant dragons, snakes, and manticores. The wizard smiled and apparated from within the flames, just as they were about to engulf him. A flood of excitement washed over Mortedigne. He fell for it. Mortedigne turned around immediately and screamed ‘Confringo!’.</p><p>            He had caught the wizard by surprise. The young man had barely the time to conjure a rock to block the blasting curse. He was shot many feet into the air and backwards into the side of a butte which shattered as his body rammed through it with force. Mortedigne laughed again.</p><p>            ‘I know you are still alive boy! You will not fool me into false confidence! Show yourself at once and face your death with courage!’ he yelled.</p><p>            Nothing happened. Could it be? After all this amazing display of talent, that a simple blasting curse did away with this magnificent opponent? No, there was some trick here. Something was not right; his obnoxious opponent did not go silent for no reason...</p><p>             ‘It seems…’ called a voice from behind the massive rock, ‘that we’ve almost reached the conclusion of our battle.’ The wizard turned from behind the butte. His left arm was shattered, bloody, and badly burned. He had bruises, cuts, and burns all over his body. His right arm, though still holding his wand, was trembling violently.</p><p>            ‘Ah, you’ve finally come to face death like a man, I see. Come here now, boy, I will make it quick,’ said Mortedigne.</p><p>            ‘You’ve been an admirable opponent, the best I’ve had so far if I’m honest. Shame it must end like this. And yet, you killed Alex,’ said the wizard.</p><p>            ‘What are you talking about?!’ demanded Mortedigne. This final bit of insolence took him by surprise.</p><p>            ‘Well, I didn’t want to do that you see, it is a dreadful bit of magic after-all,’ said the young man calmly.</p><p>            Mortedigne opened his mouth to speak again, yet whatever he had to say in retort was completely banished by the shocking sight ahead. As the young wizard raised his wand with what seemed like horribly painful effort, a gigantic ball of bright blue energy had appeared from behind the rock to his right. It looked as if he had imprisoned a lightning bolt inside a clear cage which stirred and shifted ferociously. It could barely be contained.</p><p>            As he was staring at this monstrous sight, Mortedigne felt a strong, scalding hot tag at the bottoms of his feet. His own Fiendfyre was holding him tightly in place. He could not move, he could not apparate without severing his own limbs. Panicking, he summoned all the energy, courage, and rage he had within him and screamed ‘AVADA KEDAVRA!’.</p><p>            However, even before the curse could travel a few feet, the gigantic ball of light was upon him. And then, a fleeting sensation of horrible, searing pain, and he was nothing at all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Familiar Journey</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the train rounded the corner with a whistle, chatter was heard all around as new and old students turned to search for empty compartments to occupy. The air was still crisp and fresh as it mixed with the steam and smoke of the train.</p><p>            ‘Come on, we’ve got to find a good one!’ said Rose.</p><p>            Albus turned around and noticed that most of the compartments in their carriage were already full of students. Many of them looked, and even pointed, at them with curiosity and wonder. There were a few giggles here and there.</p><p>            ‘What do you mean by “a good one”?’ asked Albus.</p><p>            ‘Well, our parents met all of their best mates on their very first train ride to Hogwarts! Whoever we choose to sit with now really matters. It will probably affect our entire career at Hogwarts!’ she retorted.</p><p>            ‘But… but… I don’t want to pick my friends right now…’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘Look Al, you’re a Potter, and I’m a Weasley-Granger, we’re probably going to have the easiest time making friends. Anyone would want to hang around famous Harry Potter’s kid! And his cousin...’ she laughed sheepishly.</p><p>            With that, she ushered him forward towards the next carriage. They passed more full compartments with giggles and babble following their every step. As they advanced through the carriages, more and more of them seemed to be fully occupied. Albus noticed that by now they had left London behind. At last, they reached a compartment with only two students which sat opposite each other, already fully dressed in their Hogwarts robes, they looked in opposite directions not talking to each other. Al recognised one of them, a tall, pale, and blond boy that looked remarkably like his father. He spotted him briefly entering the train some time ago while his father had nodded curtly at Albus’ own father, Harry. The other student was a thin, scrawny, sandy colour haired boy that looked annoyed with his seating situation.</p><p>            ‘Ew it’s that little Malfoy boy, Al let’s go find another compartment,’ whispered Rose.</p><p>            ‘We already passed three carriages! This is the first free one we’ve seen! Let’s just get in here, I’m tired of walking,’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘Fine. Okay,’ said Rose frustratingly.</p><p>            She pushed aside the door to the compartment and asked the boy on the right ‘Is anyone sitting here? Mind if we join?’.</p><p>            The boy with the sandy coloured hair nodded and gestured toward the seat next to his. He looked positively delighted at the fact that he was now not sitting alone with Malfoy. Rose sat down next to him as Albus took the seat across from her.</p><p>            ‘Rose Weasley,’ she stretched out her hand.</p><p>            ‘Connor Finnigan,’ he said as he shook her hand. ‘And you?’ he stretched out his hand to Albus.</p><p>            ‘Albus Potter,’ he replied, as the other boys gasped.</p><p>            ‘But your dad’s famous! My dad always goes on about how he was classmates with your dad!’ said Connor.</p><p>            ‘Wait a second! You’re Seamus Finnigan’s son, aren’t you?’ said Rose. ‘We’ve met your dad at Diagon Alley last week with my mum.’</p><p>            ‘Yup. My dad told me he met you at Diagon Alley. Figured you’d already be seated by now... We were a bit late for the train you see. All the good spots were already taken,’ he threw an annoyed look at Malfoy.</p><p>            As if she had just spotted him there, Rose shot Malfoy a nasty look. ‘No need to ask who you are. You Malfoys are very easy to spot,’ she said aggressively.</p><p>            ‘Yeah…’ he chuckled nervously; ‘Scorpius Malfoy,’ said the blond boy next to Albus.</p><p>            He stretched out a hand that went unshaken. Albus couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him, he did not ask to be born a Malfoy. Just as he, Albus, did not ask to be born a Potter. They were both, weirdly, burdened by their fathers’ famous (or in Scorpius’s case infamous) reputation. Scorpius lowered his gaze sadly and looked back out the window.</p><p>            ‘So, do you think you’ll be sorted into Gryffindor too?’ Rose asked Connor.</p><p>            ‘Oh yes, I hope I do at least,’ said Connor. ‘It’s by far the best one. I wouldn’t mind Ravenclaw either, I suppose. Hufflepuff might be a little tough, wouldn’t want to be stuck with all the slow kids,’ he chuckled. ‘But imagine being sorted into Slytherin, Ha! I think I’d ask to leave! I really don’t understand why they kept this house…’ he concluded.</p><p>            ‘Slytherin aren’t all bad!’ said Scorpius suddenly ‘Professor Slughorn was one of the best teachers in the school and he was a Slytherin.’</p><p>            ‘Yes, but he retired, didn’t he? For like the third time a few years back? Not really a consistent bloke, was he?’ said Connor.</p><p>            ‘Professor Snape was in Slytherin too,’ Albus added, ‘and my father says he’s the bravest man he’s ever known.’</p><p>            Scorpius looked at Albus gratefully.</p><p>            ‘Who’s teaching potions now then?’ asked Rose inquiringly.</p><p>            ‘Some new lady, she’s Irish like me I’ve heard,’ said Connor.</p><p>            ‘She’s also the new head of Slytherin House,’ said Scorpius, desperate to remain in the conversation.</p><p>            ‘She can’t be any good then, can she?’ said Rose nastily.</p><p>            The door to their compartment swung open at once, a pretty, black girl and a short boy with freckles looked inside their compartment. Albus recognised the girl; his cousin, Roxanne, was always the life of the party. </p><p>            ‘James is meeting up with some first-years to give us some tips about our first night at Hogwarts. He says that if you sneak out on your first night you can see the secret teachers’ ceremony! You guys wanna come along?’ she gestured at Albus and Rose.</p><p>            Rose looked at Connor and then at Albus ‘what do you say?’ she asked.</p><p>            ‘Sure, I’d love to come,’ said Connor.</p><p>            ‘Actually, I think I’ll stay here,’ said Albus. ‘I still have to change into my robes and the trolley witch will be coming soon.’</p><p>            ‘Suit yourself,’ said Rose.</p><p>            And with one final disapproving look at Scorpius, she left the compartment with Connor, Roxanne, and the short kid.</p><p>            ‘You didn’t have to stay here with me,’ said Scorpius as Albus switched over to the seat across from him.</p><p>            ‘I’ve heard enough of my brother’s nonsense stories about Hogwarts,’ said Albus. ‘Besides, I didn’t feel like you were too bad a company.’</p><p>            Scorpius blushed. It was true, though Rose, Connor, and even Uncle Ron seemed to hate Scorpius from the moment they set eyes on him, Albus did not see anything to hate about him. He was quiet, shy, and polite just like Albus.</p><p>            ‘So which house do you reckon you’ll be in?’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘Well, Slytherin if I’m honest…’ said Scorpius. ‘But it can’t be too bad can it?’ he asked hopefully.</p><p>            ‘I don’t suppose so no… my dad says he doesn’t care which house I end up in. And if he doesn’t care, I suppose, it doesn’t really matter then does it?’ said Albus.</p><p>            Albus and Scorpius spent the next few hours talking about their homes and their families. To Albus’ surprise, Scorpius seemed to have very few family members overall.</p><p>            ‘Just my parents, grandparents, and a couple of second cousins I’m afraid,’ said Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘Well, at least you don’t have a thousand of them. It gets confusing, and each one is more impressive than the other… Did you know Rose already memorised the first chapters in all of our book?’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘She’s smart, isn’t she?’ said Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘The smartest person I know,’ said Albus grimly. ‘Though she can get a bit full of herself.’</p><p>            The trolley witch arrived a few minutes later. They each bought Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pasties, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Fizzing Whizzbees to last them the rest of the ride to Hogwarts. For the next hour they sat in silence as they ate their sweets with the countryside becoming rougher and wilder as the day progressed. Soon fields and villages were replaced by forests and hills and the bright crisp afternoon turned brilliant red and orange.</p><p>            ‘You better change into your robes; I reckon we’ll be there soon,’ said Scorpius.</p><p>            Albus agreed and pulled his robes from his trunk. As he was putting them on Rose passed by and gave him a weird look from beyond the door. He shrugged and continued to look for his wand in the mess inside his trunk. The dread that was slowly creeping along his body now peaked as the Sorting Ceremony came closer and closer. Yet, for a change, he was not dreading being sorted into Slytherin as much. Perhaps it was the reassuring promise of Scorpius as his friend, but life as a Slytherin did not seem as bad as he had thought it to be for the past two months of the summer. He was still fearing, however, the anticipating looks on everyone’s faces as the youngest son of the great Harry Potter would take the stage to be sorted. Still dreading the whispers and the giggles and all the attention he would be getting. He was, after all, famous. He was famous before he could even walk or talk, famous before he even set foot in that school, famous for things his father achieved long before he was even born. How could the legendary Harry Potter ever know what it was like to live in the shadow of his famous family. He could not help but resent his father a little for telling him it was all going to be fine.</p><p>            ‘Hey, did you read about this new Nimbus model that’s coming out?’ said Scorpius suddenly, holding a Daily Prophet newspaper that he pulled out of his own trunk.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, the new Nimbus 3003, James has been trying to convince my dad to buy him one. Dad said he could have one once he actually gets on the Gryffindor team. And wins the cup for them the same year,’ replied Albus.</p><p>            Scorpius chuckled. ‘Are you going to try and get on your house’s team?’ he asked.  </p><p>            ‘I don’t even know if I’m good yet. Mum never lets me practice, says it isn’t safe and that I need proper training. Even though I know for a fact she was riding brooms with my uncles since before she went to Hogwarts.’ </p><p>            ‘Well, I’ve been practicing for a while now and I think I’m pretty decent. Maybe not Chaser material but I could definitely make a good Seeker. I can spot the Snitch from a mile away!’</p><p>            For the first time Scorpius seemed confident in something. Quidditch seemed to be the only subject he knew he excelled at. Albus thought about another of his father’s great achievements; becoming the youngest Seeker in a hundred years the moment he had set foot in Hogwarts. He felt another pang of anxiety and nausea at the thought of how badly he would most likely suck at Quidditch.</p><p>            ‘I bet you they won’t even let us try out for the teams though… they wouldn’t want some scrawny first-years screwing up their games,’ finished Scorpius resentfully.</p><p>            Albus made some non-committal noise as he gazed outside again. It was almost completely dark as the train began to slope upwards. He kept reassuring himself that, in a few hours, it will all be over, and he would be laying in his cosy bed awaiting his first day at Hogwarts. He had been dreaming about this moment for so long, he couldn’t believe he was actually on his way to the school he had heard so much about his entire life. And with that thought, for the first time since the morning, excitement mixed into the consistent anxiety and fear that gripped him so tightly. Scorpius seemed to share his worries, or at least his nausea, as he went very quiet all of a sudden. He looked out the window at the dark sky with a pale face and a solemn look. Albus was now getting slightly hungry and he was wondering whether they served Shepherd’s Pie in the Great Hall.</p><p>            The train started to slow down with a screech as the outside world went completely dark. And then, as suddenly as an explosion of fireworks in the darkness, the castle appeared out of a cloud as a sea of sparkling windows floating in the night sky. There it was, that same place that has been his father’s home for so many years. And now, it would be Albus’ home for the foreseeable future. The tracks screeched again after a few moments as the train stopped at Hogsmeade station. Light mist filled the air around the platform as the students stepped out of the train with their friends and began to walk toward the carriages pulled by the invisible Thestrals.</p><p>            ‘Firs’-years follow me! Firs’-years over here!’ called a familiar voice.</p><p>            Albus recognised Rubeus Hagrid’s voice from his many visits to their home at number twelve Grimmauld Place. The Hogwarts gamekeeper, and half-giant, was always much kinder than he seemed.</p><p>            ‘All righ’ there, Albus? Rose?’</p><p>            Rose had appeared from behind Albus and Scorpius suddenly and walked past them without any acknowledgement that they were standing there.</p><p>            ‘Hi Hagrid!’ she yelled at the tall figure.</p><p>            ‘Hey there Rosie, dear, nice ter see ye again. Are there any more firs’-years around? That’s all then? Right.’</p><p>            He called again at all the smaller students left on the platform ‘C’mon, follow me - Mind yer step, now! Firs’-years follow me!’.</p><p>            They all followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path. As Hagrid informed them of the coming sight, they looked up at the castle that appeared beyond the Great Lake and the trees on the sides of the path. Several students called in amazement.</p><p>            ‘Right ova’ here then mind yer step. No more’n four students a boat’ called Hagrid, who had stepped into a boat for himself. ‘Everyone in their seats? Right then -FORWARD!’.</p><p>            And with one lurch ahead the boats began to slide along the dark waters and towards the glowing turrets and towers of the castle ahead. The ride went on silently as they approached the cliff on which Hogwarts stood.</p><p>            ‘Heads down!’ yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the narrow tunnel below the cliff. After passing through the tunnel, they reached an underground harbour, the boats parked themselves at the harbour as the students climbed onto the dock. At last, as everyone seemed to be finding their bearings, Hagrid motioned and led them up a stony path to the castle’s entrance. A long streak of light hit the pavement as the doors swung open. A small man with a curly white beard stood at the entrance.</p><p>            ’’Ere ye are Professor Flitwick, our fresh firs’-years ready for sorting,’ Hagrid said to the small figure.</p><p>            ‘Very good. Very good. Thank you, Hagrid. Now if you will kindly follow me through here,’ squeaked Professor Flitwick as he gestured to the crowd of trembling first-years.</p><p>            Passing through the immense doorway into the even larger Entrance Hall, Albus could hear muffled talk and laughter from the Great Hall ahead. Professor Flitwick led them through the hall and into a much smaller room. He closed the door behind them with a short flick of his wand. The Sorting Ceremony was about to begin.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Sorting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They waited in the darkness and silence that ensued after Professor Flitwick closed the door behind them. After a moment or two some people at the back of the crowd began to mutter quietly.</p><p>            ‘Ehem,’ Professor Flitwick cleared his throat, and, with another flick of his wand, lit the torches in the room. The students were all paying attention again as he began to speak.</p><p>            ‘Welcome to Hogwarts,’ he said. ‘The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly. Before you could take your seats at the tables in the Great Hall, however, you must be sorted into your respective houses. The Sorting is one of the most important events you will participate in at Hogwarts. While here your house will be something like you family and home within Hogwarts. You will attend classes with your house members, spend your free time in your house common room, and sleep in your house dormitory.</p><p>            ‘The four houses of Hogwarts are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. Each of them has its own rich history and has produced extraordinary wizards and witches. During your time at Hogwarts, good behaviour and high academic achievements will reward your house with points. Misbehaviour will lose your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the House Cup. I am sure you will all make excellent contributions to whichever house you will be sorted into.</p><p>            ‘The Sorting will commence in a few minutes in front of the whole of the school. Please stand ready to be called and step ahead once your name is read.’</p><p>            And with that he vanished behind a second door at the very end of the room. Muttering ensued almost immediately as he left the room. Many students were now nervously talking about the Sorting and what houses their relatives had been in. Some students, Albus guessed muggle-borns, looked utterly confused and afraid. Had nobody told them about the Sorting?</p><p>            ‘I just want to get this over with,’ said Scorpius. He was trembling now, the prospect of having his name read to the entire school did not appeal to Scorpius either, evidently. Albus thought again of the stares and the giggles as he walked past the various compartments in the train. Duplicate that by about a thousand, he thought to himself bitterly.</p><p>            The door to the Great Hall opened. Professor Flitwick motioned them in enthusiastically. The thousand or so candles that floated in the hall clashed with the ceiling that was bewitched to look like the dark night sky outside. As they stepped into the well-lit hall Albus spotted the many different faces gazing at their group as they entered. The new students were arranged into rows by Professor Flitwick as they stood beside the staff table. Albus spotted Hagrid and waved at him. Hagrid waved back and gave him an encouraging nod. He then turned to look at the other teachers at the table. He recognised Neville or, as he must remember to call him now, Professor Longbottom sitting on the right-hand side of an old and stern looking witch at the very centre of the High Table<strong>. </strong>This must be Professor McGonagall, he thought, as he observed the old witch tilting her head somewhat towards Professor Longbottom. She nodded slightly as he whispered in her ear. On Professor Longbottom’s other side sat a beautiful young-looking witch with silky black hair, pale skin, and large blue eyes. She observed the crowd silently with a rather bored look on her face. On Professor McGonagall’s other side was an empty chair, most likely Professor Flitwick’s. Further down the same side sat a handsome and smartly dressed wizard with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark eyes. He was talking to a wizard that had appeared to be his perfect opposite. A shaggy looking man with buck teeth and slightly misaligned eyes.</p><p>            Professor Flitwick pulled up a small stool which he placed in front of the House Tables. He then took out a shaggy looking old wizard hat from within his robes and placed it upon the stool. For a moment, the Sorting Hat stood silently on its seat looking as unimpressive as an ancient hat can look. Then, a rip began to open near the brim of the hat, and it began to sing:</p><p>            ‘<em>Oh, look at me all ragged, patched, and torn,</em><br/><em>            A sorry sight and no delight,</em><br/><em>            Since before your forefathers were born.</em><br/><em>            Though I may smell, and not look well,</em><br/><em>            Do not throw me out just yet,</em><br/><em>            For I decide and choose and guide,</em><br/><em>            Which house you may be set.</em><br/><br/><em>            A braver soul may seize it all,</em><br/><em>            In Gryffindor's old tower.</em><br/><em>            Though if smart and bookish is your goal,</em><br/><em>            At Ravenclaw may lay your power.</em><br/><em>            Great Slytherin should be your home,</em><br/><em>            Whether cunning or ambitious.</em><br/><em>            Loyal friends, however, go to Hufflepuff,</em><br/><em>            Whose food is quite delicious.</em><br/><br/><em>            So come on now and put me on,</em><br/><em>            Fear not, I do not bite,</em><br/><em>            For I’m not known to've yet been wrong,</em><br/><em>            The smartest hat in sight!’</em></p><p>            And with that the Great Hall burst with the applause of the students and staff. The Sorting Hat bowed several times before becoming still again. Professor Flitwick pulled out a piece of parchment and began to read the new students’ names.</p><p>            ‘Abbott, Lily.’</p><p>            A small girl with dirty blonde hair stepped forward. As the hat was put over her head it slid onto her face so that only her mouth was visible. A few seconds had passed when the hat called ‘HUFFLEPUFF!’</p><p>            ‘Albatross, Jamie’ was called next. A minute later he became another ‘HUFFLEPUFF!’ to many cheers from the table second from the left.</p><p>            Next came ‘Alvarez, Melinda,’ which became the first ‘GRYFFINDOR!’. As she walked over to take her place in the Gryffindor table Albus spotted his cousin Victoire. This was her seventh and last year at Hogwarts. He wondered whether she would end up working for the ministry like Teddy, their family friend and his father’s godson, who had been recently spotted snogging her at King’s Cross. His brother, James, was sat a few seats away from her with his two best mates; William Harrington and Fred Weasley, another cousin of theirs. Albus could see one more cousin of his, Molly Weasley, sitting at the far end of the table talking to her friends. They were all cheering loudly as Melinda joined their table.</p><p>            ‘Avery, Gregory,’ became the first ‘SLYTHERIN!’ And, right behind him, was his twin sister ‘Avery, Sarah,’ which became the next one to join the table on the far right. They both looked quite unpleasant to Albus, with their pale and stiff faces looking rather bored with everything that was happening around them.  </p><p>            After several Hufflepuffs and a few Gryffindors and Slytherins, ‘Corner, Anthony,’ became the first ‘RAVENCLAW!’ He sped over to the table second from the right. Albus saw his cousin Dominique, Victoire’s sister, clapping politely from the Ravenclaw table. As the list dragged on Albus seemed to get the impression that Gryffindor were a smug bunch. When ‘Finnigan, Connor,’ the boy from the train, was declared a Gryffindor, he walked over to the table with his head held high to various shouts and applause. They seemed loud and bullyish to him. Was his father like that when he was a boy? Of course, he knew his father was famous, he loved playing the hero at any chance he got. At least it seemed so from the stories he had heard about him from his school friends. Hot-headed, craving attention, and with a raging hero complex. Yes, Gryffindor seemed to fit that description perfectly.</p><p>            ‘Goldstein, Joshua,’ was called over several minutes later and Albus recognised the short boy which stood at the door of their compartment with their cousin Roxanne. Two minutes later he was declared another ‘RAVENCLAW!’ by the hat. A couple more kids went by before ‘Greengrass, Euphemia,’ was called over to sit under the hat.</p><p>            ‘That’s my cousin,’ whispered Scorpius in Albus’ ear. She smiled at Scorpius swiftly as she became another ‘RAVENCLAW!’</p><p>            After what seemed like ten more students, it was finally the turn for ‘Malfoy, Scorpius,’ to be sorted. Scorpius stepped forward looking pale and squeamish as he had seemed on the train an hour or so ago. He sat on the stool with the hat sliding down onto his face. Not five seconds have passed when he was named for ‘SLYTHERIN!’ The Slytherin table clapped for him as he joined their table, however this time, loud hissing and several low toned boos were heard from the Gryffindor table. Albus felt angry and resentful. How could they already hate this kid before he even had his first day at Hogwarts? They must know that he never chose to be born a Malfoy. Yet they seemed to have judged him already as an outcast, a “slimy turncoat just like the rest of the Malfoys”. The “good” and “great” house of Gryffindor, a bunch of mean-spirited bullies more like.</p><p>            ‘Marble, Leif,’ was called next to become another ‘GRYFFINDOR!’, followed by ‘Maxwell, Johnathan,’ which was sorted into ‘RAVENCLAW!’ The hall started to become restless. This was a rather large new grade of students and the older ones were, evidently, getting hungry and tired. People were talking amongst themselves in droves when ‘McLaggen, Luke,’ pompously strode over to the Gryffindor table. Indifferent chatter ensued all through the next six students until finally…</p><p>            ‘Potter, Albus,’ called Professor Flitwick.</p><p>            The hall went silent at once. Every single face in the room was turned to him as he walked over to the Sorting Hat. Professor Flitwick placed it gently upon his head and his eyes were covered from the staring hall.</p><p>            ‘Ah another Potter eh?’ Said a little voice in his ear. ‘Gryffindor house has been having a surge in popularity ever since Harry Potter came along. But; why that is quite peculiar, I do not sense a lot of courage in here. No, plenty of self-doubt, and a burning desire to prove yourself, but courage? Not much,’ Said the voice.</p><p>            If “courage” means that I love to play the hero everywhere I go and bully people who don’t deserve it then I guess I am not courageous, thought Albus.</p><p>            The voice chuckled. ‘Well, I always said you Potters could achieve greatness among the snakes… though it seems that you rather expected to be sorted into Gryffindor?’</p><p>            Wouldn’t they be surprised then, thought Albus resentfully, when you call...</p><p>            ‘SLYTHERIN!’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Man Who Lived</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry Potter sat back in his chair and examined a new report that had been waiting on his desk for the past few hours. It had been a slow week; he was glad that Friday had arrived. Earlier that day he dropped off his two sons at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. For one of them, Albus, it would be the very first journey on the Hogwarts Express. He remembered giving him advice and a few reassuring words about how they would never think any less of him if he got sorted into Slytherin. Was it wrong to reveal to him that the Sorting Hat considers a student’s preference in their placement? Well, in any case he felt that calming his young boy down was more important than keeping secrets.</p><p>            The report went on and on about a new illegal trade in a specific variety of enlargement potions. The lack of regulation resulted in some catastrophic outcomes in the groin area of a few unlucky wizards. Mundungus Fletcher had barely been out of Azkaban for two weeks before these potions started popping up again, he thought. This would have been a rather amusing story if it did not necessitate a full, long investigation and the issuing of departmental resources to examine a few groins. Harry became accustomed to a less-action-packed lifestyle now that he was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Though in some ways he was thankful for the high salary and the benefit of not having to risk his life on a daily basis. He did, however, miss his time as an Auror. He felt that the way in which he spent his early twenties, travelling the globe with his mates and chasing the few remaining Death Eaters who had fled the country, was the best period in his life. Harry finished reading the report and set it aside with a yawn. He grabbed a chocolate frog pack from his secret desk drawer. As he was chewing on the chocolate frog, he read the back of the card which sported a familiar face.</p><p>
  <span class="u">HERMIONE JEAN GRANGER</span>
</p><p>British Minister for Magic</p><p>Famous for aiding Harry Potter in defeating the Dark Lord during the Second Wizarding War. Later known for passing The Emancipation and Financial Liberation of House Elves and Other Enslaved Magical Beings Act as the Head of The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She is also known for her new translation of <em>The Tales of Beedle the Bard </em>from its original runes into English. Granger became Minister for Magic in May 2017, the youngest ever to hold the position.</p><p>            Harry smiled to himself. Hermione was always the most capable one amongst his peers. Old Kingsley Shacklebolt, “The Caretaker Minister”, had been Minister for Magic up until that point. He had decided to retire from his post and declare elections the following May. The memories of the elections were still fresh in Harry’s head. Hermione had achieved a crushing victory against her opponent, Blaise Zabini, who sported a conservative view in his campaign which focused mainly on repealing The Emancipation and Financial Liberation of House Elves and Other Enslaved Magical Beings Act. Zabini had not counted on the fact that the majority of wizarding households in Britain and Ireland did not own house elves to begin with. And, if anything, the new employment laws meant that many families, who could not afford an elf before, could now rent their services for a period of time.</p><p>            Harry got up from his desk chair, stretched, and started walking towards the fireplace. As he sat on the comfortable sofa facing it, he noticed the Daily Prophet edition from that morning he had forgotten to read. He grabbed the newspaper and, after a quick glimpse at the front title (<em>‘THE NEW ENLARGEMENT CONCOCTION, USEFUL OR USELESS?’)</em>, he turned over the page and saw an interesting article about this new up-and-coming young wizard he had recently met. A young man with broad shoulders and a closely trimmed beard smiled at him from the small photo at the top-right edge of the article. Harry sat back in his couch and began to read.</p><p>
  <em>ERASMUS VAN HELMONT, THE NEXT DUMBLEDORE, OR A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL? </em>
</p><p>At only twenty-two years of age, Erasmus van Helmont has achieved fame far beyond what many of his peers could hope for in a lifetime, writes Betty Braithwaite special reporter for the Daily Prophet. The swift success story of Mr van Helmont’s life had captivated many in the magical community. Though some say that his suspiciously quick defeat of the famously dangerous dark wizard, Mortedigne, which intertwined with the death of his close friend and schoolmate, Mr Alexander Fawley, might be cause for suspicion and concern.</p><p>Born in Mould-on-the-Wold to a father of prominent pure-blood heritage (Dutch house of van Helmont and English house of Crouch) and the talented Austrian-Israeli witch Daniella Kleinmann (known for inventing the Luminmentis potion), van Helmont had first arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a timid, shy boy with few friends. 'He was very quiet and solitary at first, always sat at a far corner of the common room he did' says Agatha Hopkirk, a former fellow student at Hogwarts, now junior reporter for the Prophet. Soon after, however, he presented a clear talent in all subjects taught at the school. 'He opened up eventually, though he was always a tad weird he was,' says Hopkirk.</p><p>Soon after graduating Hogwarts with top marks in his N.E.W.Ts, van Helmont had set upon a traditional world-spanning tour with his good school-friend and classmate Mr Fawley. Barely a year had passed, and van Helmont had already begun making a name for himself as one of the only non-Japanese students to attend master Haruto Yamamoto’s prestigious magical dojo in Kyoto. Later that same year van Helmont had managed to overpower and defeat the dark wizard Shinohakobite who terrorized Japan for several years prior. Mr van Helmont then continued along with his journey across the magical world until he and Fawley had settled in the US state of Virginia where they began working for the American Magical Research Organization and Society (A.M.R.O.S). It was there that he began developing his most famous creation: the Amarous charm.</p><p>The charm is hailed as the newest major development in defensive magic and the breakthrough of the century. Its function is, quite simply, countering the previously unblockable Killing Curse. As an immensely difficult and complex spell to perform, its useability and practicality remain to be determined. The Auror Offices of both the American Magical Congress and the British Ministry of Magic, however, had already began to train their employees in its use. Many other magical governments are said to follow suit in the next few months. The invention of the Amarous charm, along with his swift defeats of famously dangerous dark wizards, had recently earned him the title of the next Dumbledore. Apparently, it was Dumbledore whom Erasmus’ father, Eduard van Helmont, had moved to Britain for, worked closely, and maintained a good corresponding friendship with during the last few years of Dumbledore’s life. Dumbledore was even named the boy’s godfather shortly before his own death.</p><p>So, what is, then, the great controversy surrounding the name Erasmus van Helmont? It begins with his undeniably extraordinary magical ability and his tendency to defeat famously dangerous dark wizards while losing “close friends” along the way. As they were giving a guest lecture at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, van Helmont and Fawley were attacked by the dark wizard Mortedigne after they, presumably, had managed to destroy his last two Horcruxes; a feat which several magical administrations employing hundreds of Aurors (among them Harry Potter and his special task force) could not achieve. During the attack Fawley was tragically killed. Van Helmont had disapparated from the scene with Mortedigne shortly after. He was later found by a MACUSA task force in Arizona with what seemed to be a sizeable crater of his own making and no trace of Mortedigne to be found. Van Helmont claims that Mortedigne had died in an explosion set off by their fierce duel.</p><p>This is all good and well until one remembers that this is not the first case in which van Helmont appears to have defeated an immensely powerful dark wizard single-handedly and with no living witnesses. His climactic duel in Japan three years prior had also ended with him being found alone in front of a crater of his own making with the dead body of a fellow student at his dojo and no sign of Shinohakobite. Even the not-so-keen observer might see a disturbing pattern in these seemingly unrelated events. Could van Helmont be sacrificing his close friends and allies in order to secure unwinnable victories? Or could he be actively disposing of potential rivals and claimants to his genius inventions so he could rake in the cash?</p><p>Afterall, Fawley had been signed as the co-inventor of the Amarous charm. There are also rumours floating about that the unnamed dead dojo student had been on the verge of a breakthrough of his own before his untimely death. Could there be some big conspiracy? Or is it a simple case of sheer coincidence? Erasmus himself had refused to provide any comments. Fawley’s family had declined to interview after a single statement by his grieving mother: ‘This is idiotic and preposterous! Erasmus had been a good friend to Alex from their very first day at Hogwarts! Go away!’. The jury is still out in the curious case of Erasmus van Helmont. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement ought surely to investigate any allegations made in the case.</p><p>            Harry had finished reading the article with bemusement. What has the poor man done to anger the writers of the Daily Prophet so much? He thought to himself as he turned the pages of the paper. Yes, these cases were weirdly similar but he, Harry, had to endure such speculations about his sanity and pure intentions back when Lord Voldemort had returned. He was sure that the whole story in its entirety could not have been delivered by the Daily Prophet. In any case, he would soon be able to question the man himself.</p><p>            There was a knock on the door to his office. Harry called the visitor in.</p><p>            ‘Mr Potter? The Minister wishes to speak to you,’ said Beth, his young new secretary.</p><p>            ‘Sure, tell her I’ll be up there in a bit,’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘Oh, there’s no need to, she said she’s coming over here, and I should just let you know,’ she replied.</p><p>            ‘Alright then, thank you, Beth.’</p><p>            ‘No problem, Mr Potter.’</p><p>            As his secretary left his room, Harry contemplated the past few months in his mind. He had liked his old secretary, Percilia Waterborne, but she was getting rather forgetful of late. Her retirement at the age of a hundred and fifteen could not have come sooner. Bethany Roberts was an eager and energetic young witch who was always up on her game. Harry had grown very fond of her in the past couple of months.</p><p>            ‘Harry?’</p><p>            ‘Minister?’</p><p>            ‘Oh, stop this nonsense, will you?’ said Hermione as she entered and sat down on the armchair to Harry’s left. He smiled at her cheekily. She was wearing her travel coat and had her bag in her arm.</p><p>            ‘Leaving already?’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘Well, I figured there’s only one more hour left, and I’d better get home and make sure Ron’s fixed the new car properly,’ she said.</p><p>            ‘Tut, tut, the Minister herself skiving off work.’</p><p>            ‘Well, if the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has any complaints, he should take them in with my secretary.’</p><p>            Harry chuckled. ‘Are you and Ron still coming over for dinner tomorrow?’ he asked.</p><p>            ‘Yes of course. Is HE coming still too?’ asked Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Well, he said so when I invited him over last week. Seemed very excited about it,’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘I still can’t believe there’s now a counterspell for Avada Kedavra. Think of the number of people that could have been saved back in the day…’</p><p>            ‘I know…’  he said heavily.</p><p>            They both sat in silence for a minute as all the victims of the Second Wizarding War had popped back into Harry’s mind. Not wanting to remain in this sombre silence for long, Hermione began to speak again.</p><p>            ‘That seminar was quite fascinating though, wasn’t it? He named your case and the Patronus charm as his inspiration and the base for the technique,’ she said curiously. ‘I still find it a little hard to concentrate on a person I love while conjuring a complex magical force field.’</p><p>            ‘What are you on about? You were the best one in there!’ said Harry. ‘Van Helmont’s actually wanted you to demonstrate it in action, only you chickened out.’</p><p>            ‘Oh, but it’s just so dangerous! If I had screwed anything up, I wouldn’t be alive right now! It’s different in a battle or a duel, but I just wouldn’t want to lose my life for some stupid drill’ she retorted.</p><p>            ‘Well, in any case, I guess we’ll have another chance at a first-hand demonstration tomorrow, won’t we? Did you know he was Dumbledore’s godson? I had no clue…’</p><p>            ‘I imagine Dumbledore would have been godfather to a lot of people in his time,’ said Hermione wisely as she glanced at her wristwatch. ‘I wanted to talk to you about next year. I had an idea to ask van Helmont if he would like to be on the committee.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, I guess, he’s got loads of hands-on experience, knowledge, and training, even if it is of the unconventional kind. He could probably come up with some good ideas,’ said Harry.</p><p>            Hermione snorted. ‘Look who’s talking. You are the king of unconventional training, Harry Potter.’</p><p>            ‘I guess so,’ said Harry with a slight guilty laugh.</p><p>            ‘So, we’ll see you tomorrow at six-thirty?’</p><p>            ‘Yes, I’ll see you then.’</p><p>            Harry folded the paper in his hands as she got up to leave.</p><p>            ‘Could you call Beth in for me please?’ he called after Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Sure,’ she replied.</p><p>            Harry got up from the sofa and threw the paper in the bin beside the fireplace. He walked back to his desk and grabbed a quill and parchment from his drawer. His secretary came in as he finished scribbling his note.</p><p>            ‘You called for me Mr Potter?’</p><p>            ‘Yes Beth, if you could kindly send a notice to McAllister that I looked over the enlargement potions’ report and that it seems fine. Also, if you could get this to Thomas before the end of the day’ he handed her the note he had just scribbled. ‘And one last thing. Could you please send an owl to Teddy Lupin for me? Just tell him that dinner tomorrow is at six-thirty, but he can come over earlier if he likes and tell me about his training.’</p><p>            ‘Of course, Mr Potter,’ she replied.</p><p>            ‘You’re a darling,’ said Harry.</p><p>            She smiled and left his office. As the door closed Harry started packing his files into his briefcase. He had decided to go home early like Hermione. Afterall, he wanted to know whether Albus and James have arrived at Hogwarts yet and which house his younger son got sorted into. He walked out of his office a minute later and waved Beth goodbye as he walked past her desk. A few minutes later the doors of the lift he was occupying opened as the cool voice said, ‘Eighth floor, The Atrium.’ Harry walked past the Fountain of Magical Unity (a golden statue at the centre of a large fountain depicting a wizard, witch, goblin, house-elf, merman, and centaur holding hands and standing in a circle) and proceeded towards the fireplaces ahead. He stepped into the nearest fireplace and in one sweeping motion, he had left the Ministry of Magic behind.</p><p>*</p><p>Harry climbed out of the fireplace into the familiar kitchen of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. Kreacher, his old house-elf, greeted him cheerfully.</p><p>            ‘Welcome back master! Dinner is nearly ready, steak and kidney pie,’ said the elf.</p><p>            ‘Thank you, Kreacher,’ said Harry as he walked past the large kitchen table toward the door that led to the hallway. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, had been fully renovated when Harry had officially moved there in the summer of 1998. Even after a thorough clean-up, it took almost two months to fully rid the house of its old, cursed paintings and tapestries. The house in which Harry and Ginny had raised their children was a very different place from the one which the Order of The Phoenix had made its headquarters almost two decades prior. It was much brighter and more inviting. The walls were brightly coloured, and the wooden floors had been cleaned and polished to look much fresher. Portraits of the Potter family hung in the rooms and a light breeze could be felt through the open extra windows which were added some time ago.</p><p>            Harry entered the drawing room and spotted his wife on the sofa in front of the fireplace.</p><p>            ‘Has there been any news from…’</p><p>            ‘Slytherin,’ interrupted Ginny before he could finish his question.</p><p>            ‘What?’</p><p>            ‘Albus got sorted into Slytherin,’ she clarified.</p><p>            ‘Really?’ said Harry in surprise. ‘After all the arguments with James and the doubts? After I told him he could choose which house he’d be sorted into? Well, that’s… odd.’</p><p>            ‘Yes, and you wouldn’t believe who he’s made friends with already, it’s Malfoy’s boy, Scorpius.’</p><p>            ‘What?! I wouldn’t have imagined… Well, I guess he can’t be as bad as his father than eh?’ said Harry with a sigh. ‘Who told you that?’ he enquired.</p><p>            ‘McGonagall sent an owl a few minutes before you arrived. Rose and Roxanne got sorted into Gryffindor and Hufflepuff respectively by the way,’ said Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, I figured they would, and still Albus…’</p><p>            ‘Well, if he did listen to you at King’s Cross then that means he chose to be in Slytherin. I guess if he feels like he fits in there more than in any of the other houses…’</p><p>            ‘I just don’t want to go on any play-dates with Malfoy,’ said Harry half annoyed.</p><p>            Ginny laughed. He sat down beside her as they talked for while about their days at work. Soon after, Kreacher had called them downstairs for dinner. Lily was already in the kitchen as they arrived downstairs. They spent the rest of the evening reminiscing about their days at Hogwarts to Lily’s increasing annoyance.</p><p>            An owl came a little later in with Teddy’s reply to Harry saying he would be at their house at four o’clock the following day. Teddy had recently been accepted to the rigorous Auror training programme of the Ministry. On top of unusually high marks achieved in their N.E.W.Ts, prospective Aurors were required to undergo a stringent series of character and aptitude tests which often resulted in more than half the class quitting within a month. Harry was sure that his godson Teddy would be up for the challenge. His mother was an Auror after-all, and he had inherited her Metamorphmagus abilities which were quite useful for a profession in which disguises are often used. He had also inherited his father’s affinity and talent in defence against the dark arts. Teddy was practically a member of their family ever since his parents died in the Battle of Hogwarts nineteen years ago. Harry saw him as more of a son than anything else, and his determination to become an Auror had made Harry very proud of the man he had become.</p><p>            ‘Wait a second, I want to send a letter to Hogwarts,’ Harry told the owl as it was about to take flight again. He summoned a quill and parchment from his study and began to write swiftly.</p><p>
  <em>Albus,</em>
</p><p><em>We are very proud of you. Don</em>’<em>t listen to your brother if he teases you for being sorted into Slytherin. We both know you will do great no matter which house you're</em><em> at. </em></p><p><em>Take the weekend to explore the castle a little, just be careful not to run into Peeves or Filch. We</em>’<em>ll write to you again soon. </em></p><p>
  <em>            Love,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>            Mum and Dad.</em>
</p><p>            Harry sealed his letter and attached it to the owl’s stretched out leg. He turned to Ginny and said, ‘I think I’m gonna go take a shower now.’ As he was ascending the stairs to the third floor Harry could not help but feel immensely jealous of his two sons. There they were, at the very beginning of their time at Hogwarts, full of potential and wonder. Hogwarts was his first true home, at least the first true home he could remember. He yearned to go back, to attend lessons and spend sun-filled free periods in his favourite courtyard. He even missed the trouble that came along with being The Boy Who Lived. Yes, he was often in mortal peril and was the subject of rumours and ridicule far more frequently than he wished to be, but the adventures he had at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione by his side nevertheless made his fondest memories. He was not that bright-eyed child anymore, he thought bitterly as he turned the tap in his shower. He was now a full-grown adult, with responsibilities, and a job, and reports to fill. Unstopping, relentless, tedious, soul-crushing reports. In spite of himself, even though he kept telling himself that his boredom, his frustration, with the life he had now been leading was a small price to pay for the safety and peaceful existence of his children and of the Wizarding World, he couldn’t help but hope, pray even, that some other adventure would arise and disrupt the crushing dullness that was now the life of The Man Who Lived.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Child and The Dinner Party</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry woke up the next morning to the sound of chirping birds outside his window. It was as bright and crisp a morning as the one before. He got up and went about his morning routine before heading down to the kitchen to have his cup of morning coffee with toast. He scanned the morning edition of the Daily Prophet that was placed before him on the kitchen table, there was nothing worth reading. He thought of the day to come and how he would have to tidy up the place before his guests arrive tonight.</p><p>            He was excited for this day for a change. After-all, it is not every day when you get to have dinner with the latest genius scapegoat of the Daily Prophet. He was still amazed at the fact that this young wizard had managed to track down and single-handedly defeat the dark wizard Harry had been tracking from afar for almost three years. Of course, he, Harry, had defeated a far more dangerous wizard at a much younger age. Nevertheless, he had done it with the help and guidance of Albus Dumbledore, not to mention the prophecy and a heap load of luck with a certain Elder Wand. There was certainly something special about this van Helmont character.</p><p>            Harry was also looking forward to hearing Teddy’s stories from the Auror Academy. He still remembered the intense training programme from his own experience almost nineteen years ago. He did get an accelerated course, however, due to both the fact that he had already had much more practical experience in the field than most Aurors and the fact that the Ministry needed as many new Aurors as they could get and fast. The war had taken the lives and abilities of many of them and left the department virtually empty. He finished his toast and sipped his coffee with a sad smile.</p><p>            Harry jumped as he heard the bell ring at the front of the house. He got up quickly, wondering who could be at his door this early on a Saturday morning. When he opened the front door, he saw the dishevelled face of Dean Thomas standing on his doorstep.</p><p>            ‘Grab a jacket, you need to come with me,’ said Dean with no introduction.</p><p>            ‘What…’ started Harry.          </p><p>            ‘A witch, Laura Madley, has been murdered,’ said Dean, ‘but that’s not all of it. You’ve got to come see this.’</p><p>            ‘What’s going on?’ asked Ginny who appeared at the other end of the hallway, looking still half asleep.</p><p>            Harry turned to her ‘Ginny, get the house ready. I’ll be back in a few hours.’ He grabbed his coat from the closet by the entrance and walked into the cool morning air with Dean.</p><p>            ‘We’re gonna have to disapparate to Chudley, Harry. I don’t think we’ll be seen since it’s Saturday morning and we can’t waste any time with Floo Powder or Portkeys,’ said Dean as he grabbed Harry’s hand. The familiar feeling of suffocation and disorientation, as if squeezed through a tight tube, had swept upon Harry.</p><p>            They reappeared a moment later at the entrance to a medium-sized village. Dean motioned Harry with his head toward the street ahead. The urgency in the voice and the fast-paced walk of the Head Auror made Harry feel rather concerned. He had not been Head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement for very long by then. Before that Harry was the Head of the Auror Office. After he got promoted, Dean Thomas took his place as Head Auror.</p><p>            ‘She was found at four in the morning by her friend who came knocking. Just in her home right around this corner. I have to warn you, Harry, you’re not gonna like this…’ said Dean nervously.</p><p>            And with an awful, gut-punching feeling Harry realised what he was talking about. Right above a modest little house, blazing in the morning sun, was no other than the Dark Mark. The Mark with which Lord Voldemort’s Death Eaters had used to commemorate their crime scenes had not been seen in nineteen years. What was it doing here at the sleepy semi-wizarding village of Chudley?</p><p>            ‘Couldn’t it be some crazy sympathiser? Or someone that’s just trying to scare people?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘Oh, there’s more, Madley was still alive when she was found. Our advising healer says she’s probably been given Veritaserum laced with some sort of a slow poison. Go on in then, her friend can tell you the rest once our scribe is done with her statement…’</p><p>            Harry entered the small house. There was nothing unusual about it, except for the dead body of a woman, about his age, in the middle of the sitting room. Harry looked around the place but could not find anything that may have been related to her death. The murderer, whoever they were, did not leave any physical trace behind them. One of the Aurors came in to let him know the witness was ready. Harry stepped back outside to speak with the distraught looking woman who stood crying in the middle of a group of Aurors.</p><p>            ‘Hey there, Harry Potter, Head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement,’ he introduced himself. ‘Do you think you could answer a couple of questions for me, Ms….?’</p><p>            ‘Don’t you recognise me, Harry? Vane. Romilda Vane,’ she sniffed.</p><p>            ‘Oh, I’m sorry Romilda, it’s been a few years… Can you please tell me what happened here?’ he asked as gently as he could.</p><p>            ‘Well, I live right across the street from here and… *sniff* I was woken up by a loud racket that came from Laura’s house and… *sniff* *sniff* I went outside and saw it …’ she began to cry again.</p><p>            Harry gave her a minute to regain her bearing and proceeded to ask: ‘And what did you do then?’</p><p>            ‘I ran inside and I… I found her on the floor shaking like mad and I… *sniff* I tried asking her what was wrong, but she wouldn’t stop repeating the same thing over and over and over again…’</p><p>            ‘What was she saying?’ Harry asked. But Romilda had her hands over her face at that point. Harry could not make out what she was saying.</p><p>            ‘Romilda please, I need to know what she said to you… This is extremely important. We have to catch whoever did this to her…’</p><p>            She lowered her hands and stared at Harry, her face puffed and drenched with tears. ‘She… she grabbed me and… *sniff* she kept saying “The Lost Child is at Hogwarts; The Child will ascend beyond the father; The Child of the Dark Lord will rise to take back the Wizarding World.”’</p><p>*</p><p>            Harry had spent most of his morning at the crime scene. What a mess, he thought as he continued to write his report. And the Daily Prophet was all over it too, wonderful, just great. The reporters had arrived several minutes after he finished questioning Romilda Vane. He tried to get her away from the flashing and babbling mob of mouths and cameras, but the damage was done. She had told the reporters about Madley’s, for lack of a better expression, prophecy of the Lost Child of the Dark Lord.</p><p>            Harry still had trouble believing it was real. Voldemort never showed any indication that he was romantically interested in women, or men for that matter, or anything really. Could he have actually…? Harry shuddered at the awful image that had appeared in his mind. No, this must be some sort of charade, a scare-tactic of some new dark wizard. But then again, only Voldemort’s inner circle knew how to conjure the Dark Mark. He had Dean send Aurors to every ex-Death Eater that got released from Azkaban for providing information about their colleagues back in the day. The problem was that most of them had moved away from their jurisdiction. The Carrows, Goyles, and Notts had all moved to North America, none of them had set foot in Britain or Ireland ever since. Travers had escaped (most likely) to Australia before he could be captured and has not surfaced since either. They had not dared release any of the more serious offenders, even if they did give them whereabouts and names, for obvious reasons. All the ex-Death Eaters in Azkaban were still very much in there this morning, nobody was missing. This left the Malfoys. They were acquitted after the Battle of Hogwarts on Harry’s recommendation since they had exhibited a change of heart before Voldemort’s downfall. Narcissa had even lied to help Harry during the battle. It was possible, however, if old slimy Lucius Malfoy had heard a rumour about a secret successor to Voldemort, and Madley had some information about them, he could possibly pay her a visit. However, when the Aurors came knocking at Malfoy Manor they had discovered an old, frail, and senile man who could barely comprehend his surroundings. Lucius’ son, Draco, was another possible candidate. Though Harry had disliked him since their time in school, he could not believe Draco would bother to murder anyone for the child of his old master. Draco and his mother were not the most enthusiastic Death Eaters after-all. Nevertheless, he had established a task force to look further into any of Voldemort’s old crew who were out of Azkaban.</p><p>            Then there was the issue of age. Voldemort’s kid would have had to have been conceived sometime between June of 1995 and May of 1998. This would make them eighteen years old at the very least. They could obviously be lying about their true age and somehow fool the various magical safeguards of Hogwarts. It was plausible, they would just require a lot of assistance. This was nonetheless helpful since Harry knew they were looking for someone in either their fifth, sixth, or seventh year of school who may look slightly old for their age. He would maybe have Neville investigate the matter. He thought they would do better managing it discreetly rather than waltz a whole brigade of Aurors into Hogwarts and start questioning every single student at the school.</p><p>            Harry finished writing his report and reached for a fresh parchment. He was going to write to Neville. He will have to get his own personal owl to… <em>or better yet</em>, he thought as he crumpled the piece of parchment in his hand, he can go there himself and talk to Neville personally. He will have to do it tomorrow. It was already late, and he had to get back home for dinner. He got up from his desk chair and proceeded to check his watch. Twenty past six o’clock. He hurried out of the office, Beth will take care of all the paperwork and its various destinations when she gets here on Monday, he thought to himself. When he got to the Atrium, he ran into a horde of Daily Prophet reporters which blocked his way to the fireplaces.</p><p>            ‘Potter what do you know so far?’</p><p>            ‘Hey Harry, over here, what was the Dark Mark doing over this woman’s house?’</p><p>            ‘Who did it? Do you have any leads?!?!’</p><p>            ‘Mr Potter what do you think the rumours about the Lost Child mean? Are they true?’</p><p>            ‘Is You Know Who back again?’</p><p>            ‘Potter! Potter! Right here, do you reckon one of the remaining Death Eaters is responsible for this?!! Have you looked into the Malfoys?’</p><p>            ‘No comments so far, we will issue a statement tomorrow morning,’ yelled Harry at the crowd while pushing his way through to the fireplace nearest to him. He managed to eventually make his way to the fireplace and caught one last glimpse of the crowd behind him. Those pesky reporters would be the death of me he thought as he was swept in the warm embrace of the green flames.</p><p>            He climbed out of his kitchen fireplace a moment later. Two men were sitting at the table. One of them, the younger of the two, was his godson Teddy Lupin. Teddy was talking to another young wizard with dark green eyes, closely trimmed beard, and auburn hair. They both stopped conversing and looked at Harry when he arrived. Erasmus van Helmont got up from his chair and greeted Harry with a handshake.</p><p>            ‘Nice to meet you again Mr Potter, your wife was kind enough to let me sit here while we waited for you. I’m afraid she’s gone upstairs to call your daughter over.’</p><p>            ‘Please, call me Harry,’ he replied as he motioned the young man to sit back down.</p><p>            ‘Anything new on the Madley case?’ asked Teddy.</p><p>            ‘Not really, we know she lived alone with no family or friends that we know of. Her neighbours described her as “weird and a bit looney,”’ replied Harry as he sat down next to van Helmont.</p><p>            ‘She must’ve known something about this Lost Child though?’</p><p>            ‘We think she may have been a seer and that whoever did this to her had tried to force a sort of prophecy from her to maybe figure out the Child’s whereabouts or see if she knew more than she was letting on at first. This couldn’t have been a cover-up murder since they wouldn’t have bothered with the Veritaserum-poison cocktail and torturing her, they would’ve just quickly killed her off.’</p><p>            ‘Dreadful business…’ said van Helmont with a sigh.</p><p>            Ginny had entered the kitchen at that moment with Lily at her side. ‘Bad day eh?’ she said sympathetically.</p><p>            ‘Horrible,’ said Harry as he turned to look absent-mindedly at Kreacher who was at the far end of the kitchen preparing a large dish of Shepherd’s Pie and Yorkshire Pudding.</p><p>            Ron and Hermione arrived several minutes later. Harry reiterated all the case’s details and his theories to them as they sat down at the table with everyone else. Kreacher began serving them the delicious smelling dinner. Harry realised he had not eaten anything since the morning.</p><p>            ‘It’s got to be Travers,’ said Ron with a mouth full of pie. ‘We don’t know for sure he’s in Australia and he’s the only Death Eater we couldn’t keep track of.’</p><p>            ‘But how would he find out about the Child’s existence?’ said Hermione.  </p><p>            ‘Maybe Voldemort told him back in the day.’</p><p>            ‘And then he just sat there waiting for nineteen years? It doesn’t make any sense.’</p><p>            ‘I personally think,’ said van Helmont to everyone’s surprise as he had not commented about the topic until then, ‘that whoever it was didn’t know about the Child’s existence until very recently. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have tried to squeeze it out of poor Miss Madley. But somebody knew something, Miss Madley certainly did, and I bet you somebody else had known about the existence of the Child and had told the murderer recently. It could have been Travers, it could have been any other ex-Death Eater, but I would also investigate any British or Irish person who had recently travelled to their known locations and may have been in contact with them. They could have let out some rumour they had heard over here slip and caused some of Voldemort’s old crew to come looking. By the way, did Miss Madley have any unique school friends that you know of? Anyone that may have confided in her during her youth?’</p><p>            ‘Well, she was born in nineteen eighty-three, three years younger than me. That would make her far too old for any child of Voldemort to both befriend her at school and also be a student there right now,’ replied Harry.</p><p>            ‘Was it necessarily a student? Have you looked into any of the staff at Hogwarts? Maybe the Child is not actually a child anymore?’ said van Helmont.</p><p>            This hit Harry like a tonne of bricks. He had not thought about this possibility. The Child could be biding their time, slowly and quietly recruiting a silent army of brand-new Death Eaters to wreak revenge on Harry and his friends and on the Wizarding World.</p><p>            ‘But, assuming they were conceived before Hallowe’en of nineteen eighty-one, this could make them anywhere between thirty-six and well over fifty!’ said Teddy with a slight panic in his voice.</p><p>            ‘Yes, but it also considerably narrows down the list of suspects,’ said van Helmont reassuringly.</p><p>            Harry’s mind was racing, could one of the new Professors at Hogwarts, someone who might be teaching his sons, be the secret child of his nemesis? Could it be one of his own teachers? He had to find out more about this before anything else could happen. </p><p>            ‘Well, enough about this now,’ said Ginny impatiently. ‘Teddy, how’s your training coming along?’</p><p>            ‘It’s going okay, I think. We’re studying for the Concealment and Disguise exam right now and that should be a breeze,’ he said, quickly looking at Lily and changing his nose into a large hooked one and sprouting a bushy moustache. Lily laughed out loud.</p><p>            ‘I remember they confiscated my Invisibility Cloak for that,’ interjected Harry with a smile, ‘old Josiah Smith didn’t trust me not to use it.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, he can be really strict sometimes, but I think I’ll manage,’ said Teddy.</p><p>            ‘I’m sure you’ll do absolutely great,’ said Harry. ‘And if you don’t, I’ll have a serious chat with Mr Smith.’</p><p>            Teddy laughed somewhat nervously and turned back to his pie. They ate in silence for a moment before Hermione asked, ‘What about you, Mr van Helmont, have you got any plans now that you’re back home?’</p><p>            ‘Oh, that awkward surname,’ he replied with a wave of his hand, ‘you can call me Erasmus, or Rasmi, that’s what my mates call me. Yeah, I do have some plans actually. I’ve been working on my next invention. You see I’ve always found owl-based communication rather cumbersome and inefficient. I recently learned that muggles don’t use their post that much anymore for writing letters, they instead use their little mobile-phone devices to send messages to each other using a clever technology they call “texting”. Well, I figured we could employ some sort of magical equivalent, since muggle electronics don’t work too well in magical environments.’</p><p>            He pulled a small silvery metal tablet out of his pocket and showed it to everyone at the table. There was a piece of blank parchment imbedded into it on one side.</p><p>            ‘This,’ he pointed at the small tablet, ‘is a Nuntillud. It’s embedded with a modified and exponentiated Protean Charm, Vanishing Charm, and a few other tweaks of my own invention.’</p><p>            He pulled out another tablet, identical to the first one and handed it to Teddy.</p><p>            ‘Now, to use it you simply need a quill or a pencil… have you got any? I seem to have forgotten mine… oh well,’ he turned his fork into a quill and proceeded to write on the little piece of parchment. ‘All you’ve got to do it write down the name of the person you wish to contact at the top right here’ he wrote down “Edward Lupin” at the very top of the parchment and then “Hi Teddy how was your day?” below it. A second later the device in Teddy’s hand showed the same text with “Erasmus van Helmont” at the top. He handed Teddy his quill and motioned his head to encourage him to have a go. Teddy wrote down “Hi there Rasmi” and a second later the same writing appeared on Rasmi’s tablet with “Edward Lupin” right above it.</p><p>            ‘Wow,’ said Teddy in astonishment, ‘that’s bloody neat!’</p><p>            ‘Yeah,’ said Rasmi with a smile, ‘it works pretty much everywhere too. I can send messages at an instant all the way to Japan and America if I want. All you have to do to get rid of it is vanish it with your wand like that’ he demonstrated a short flick of his wand and the text had vanished leaving the parchment blank and clean again.</p><p>            ‘This is excellent!’ called Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Brilliant’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘Mate if you’re looking for investors, I mean, I am the co-owner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, we can arrange something I’m sure,’ said Ron in amazement.</p><p>            ‘That’s actually not a bad idea. I am looking for investors at the moment, though I’m still trying to get it through the Magical Patents Office at the Ministry, I will be trying to form my own company if it takes off. Old Slughorn had already put me in touch with a few potential investors. I have to say, being a member of The Slug Club wasn’t as much of a waste of time as it seemed,’ said Rasmi.</p><p>            ‘I bet he loved you, didn’t he?’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘He did take a liking to me,’ answered Rasmi a little embarrassed, ‘though, sadly, he didn’t approve of my various rule-breaking experiments.’</p><p>            Harry chuckled. There was something that reminded him both of his son James’ mischievousness and of Dumbledore’s serene brilliance in the young man next to him. They finished their dinner and had decided to go upstairs for some tea in the drawing room on the first floor. Harry had gone to make sure that Lily was ready for bed and when he came back into the sitting room, he heard Rasmi talking to Hermione.</p><p>            ‘I would love to do it. And all I ask in return is that, if you could, see to it that my Nuntillud patent goes smoothly through the Magical Patents Office.’</p><p>            ‘I’m sure we can arrange that. If you could please send me a list of some ideas by the end of the month? We are in terrible need of some new ones I’m afraid,’ replied Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Sure.’</p><p>            ‘So,’ said Harry as he sat back down next to Ginny, ‘what was that article in the Daily Prophet all about?’ he asked Rasmi in a casual tone.</p><p>            ‘Oh, that stupid piece? A pile of rubbish for the most part. I mean to suggest that I had a hand in Alex’s death… I am giving most of my revenue from the Amarous patent to Alex’s family, and that Braithwaite woman, might as well call her Skeeter junior, suggests that I murdered my friend for the money,’ he said indignantly.</p><p>            ‘But how did you do Mortedigne and that other guy in then?’ asked Ron.</p><p>            ‘That I’m afraid,’ said Rasmi with a sad tone in his voice, ‘I can’t tell. I promised a long time ago that I would not share this information. I’m sorry.’</p><p>            Harry did not know what to make of it. There was a certain air of sadness and mystery in Rasmi’s face as he went quiet. Was this some type of dark magic?</p><p>            ‘Did Rose write to you from school yet Hermione?’ asked Ginny in an attempt to shift the conversation to a brighter subject.</p><p>            ‘Oh, yes she’s settling in nicely. Already made a few friends; Seamus Finnigan’s son Connor and Anthony Goldstein’s son Joshua. She said Albus is now friends with Scorpius Malfoy? Is that true?’ said Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Yes, it seems so. I don’t know much about him really. But he can’t be like his dad if Albus thinks he’s okay,’ said Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Well, as long as I don’t have to meet up with Malfoy Senior and his ever-expanding forehead, I’m okay with it. Really ironic though, when you think about it. I mean, what are the chances?’ said Ron.</p><p>            ‘I know, of all the kids he could have made friends with he had to pick Malfoy’s kid…’ said Harry with a drop of unintentional bitterness in his voice.</p><p>            ‘Well, think about it,’ said Hermione, ‘they are both sort of outsiders. Albus never felt comfortable with all the attention he was getting, being your son can’t be easy, Harry, and he is much shyer and more reserved than James is. And Scorpius, well, he was raised in a family that isn’t really exceedingly popular these days and he must have gotten the complete opposite sort of attention to Albus. When you think about it like that, it makes sense that they would be drawn to each other in that way.’</p><p>            ‘Come off it,’ said Ron, ‘Al is not an outsider, he’s the son of the most popular wizard in the world! His cousins always include him in everything! We give him presents on every holiday and he’s never been alone in his life!’</p><p>            ‘That’s exactly the problem though! He’s always been living in the limelight, everyone’s got such high expectations of him, it could discourage anyone to be honest.’</p><p>            ‘Maybe,’ said Harry. ‘Or maybe Scorpius is just a nice boy, I don’t know.’</p><p>            ‘Anyway, it’s getting late and we need to see your parents early tomorrow Ron, so we should get going,’ said Hermione with a glance at her husband.</p><p>            ‘I’ll be leaving too then,’ said Rasmi as he got up, ‘it’s been lovely tonight really, my compliments to Kreacher. Write to me if you need anything, will you? Number fifty-five Diagon Alley, apartment four.’</p><p>            ‘Teddy would you like to stay the night?’ asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘No, I better get going too, gotta study hard for my exams.’</p><p>            They all descended the stairs in a group. As they were saying their goodbyes at the front door, Ron whispered to Harry ‘Exciting times huh? Our kids at Hogwarts, new magic being invented, and now this Lost Child in the mix… I envy your job sometimes Harry.’</p><p>            You wouldn’t if you actually had to do it, thought Harry as he shook his hand. He would get up early tomorrow and go to Neville. He had decided he had to get to the bottom of this and soon.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The First Week</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was Monday. Albus woke up to the soft swish and greenish hue of the lake’s waters. He had found the gentle sound and light of the water soothing both to get up and fall asleep to. The Slytherin Dungeon was located behind a bare stretch of stone wall at the far end of one of the deep dungeons of Hogwarts, which meant that it was completely beneath the lake’s surface. The windows in the dormitories, bathrooms, and common room were all looking out into the vast, deep, and seemingly endless lake. Fish, Grindylows, and even the Giant Squid sometimes passed by to the amazement of the various first-year students and the indifference of all the rest. Greenish lamps and chairs decorated the common room all the way to the elaborately carved mantelpiece under which burned a green warm flame.</p><p>            Albus got up and rubbed his eyes. This was his first day of class. He spent his weekend as his father had advised him, exploring the castle and its grounds with Scorpius. This was no easy task by any means as Hogwarts was an ever-changing and ever-challenging place to move around in. There were stairwells that lead to different places on different days and some that lead nowhere. Some doors only opened if you tickled them a certain way and some were just walls pretending to be doors. Peeves seemed to be always around singing rude songs and flinging a variety of objects at first-years. He seemed to have decided that Albus was ‘Potty’s Wee Boy’ and Scorpius ‘Scrapy Little Scorpie’ and they were his favourite targets for ridicule. Of course, Peeves’ ridicule was nothing compared to the whispers and stares that seemed to intensify after Albus got sorted into Slytherin. When the sorting hat called him to be put in Slytherin the loudest silence Albus had ever experienced ensued. It was only broken by the sound of Hagrid’s goblet dropping to the floor with a loud crash. Everyone was shocked, as he knew would happen, by the fact that Harry Potter’s son was now a Slytherin. He saw Rose give him another one of her weird looks and his brother looking bewildered and slightly amused as he walked over to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. Scorpius, however, was beside himself with joy. He and Albus became fast friends over the last couple of days which made Albus feel better about his experience at Hogwarts so far.</p><p>            Then, however, came the rumours about the Lost Child. The gruesome murder of Laura Madley and the subsequent panic about the heir to the Dark Lord who could be at Hogwarts took over everyone’s conversations like wildfire. Albus and Scorpius had discussed it themselves too. They figured it had to be one of the older students, since the child would need to have been born in the late nineties. Still, they had no clue who it could be.</p><p>            ‘But if they are one of the older students, why didn’t they do anything up until now? Why wait?’ queried Scorpius on Sunday evening.</p><p>            ‘Well, they didn’t really “do” anything even now did they? I mean someone was just looking for them. Maybe they’re hiding from someone who wants them to be the “heir to the Dark Lord”, but they don’t want to?’ said Albus wisely.</p><p>            They had to give the subject a rest today though. Now it was time to focus on their first day of classes. Albus put on his robes and went to the bathroom to get ready for breakfast. He met Scorpius at the entrance to the common room.</p><p>            ‘Breakfast?’ he asked.</p><p>            ‘Yup let’s go,’ replied Albus.</p><p>            They climbed the stairs to the Entrance Hall and from there proceeded to the Great Hall in which breakfast was served every day from 7:00 to 10:30. They sat down at the Slytherin table and began loading their bowls with breakfast cereals. They ate in silence as the Hall filled with students.</p><p>            ‘Which class is our first remind me?’ asked Albus.</p><p>            ‘Double Potions at nine to ten-thirty with Professor McGarth,’ replied Scorpius. ‘Then a break, then History of Magic with Professor Binns, then a long free period until we have Charms with Professor Flitwick at two forty-five, and then later Astronomy.’</p><p>            ‘Professor McGarth is our Head of House, right? I wonder what she’s like…’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘I hope she’s nice. I’m very excited for Charms personally, this is where we learn all the cool stuff you know, all of the really useful magic. And Professor Flitwick seems alright,’ replied Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘We better get going soon,’ said Albus.</p><p>            They left their empty bowls behind as they went back down to the dungeons. The potions classroom was in one of the bigger dungeons a little further up than their own. They joined the queue outside of the classroom and Albus spotted Rose and Connor standing at the front of it. They waved at each other politely as they passed. At 9 o’clock the doors to the dungeon opened of their own accord. They entered the room one by one and Albus and Scorpius took their seats at a middle row of the class. Professor McGrath, the beautiful witch with the silky black hair Albus had seen on the night of the Sorting, sat at her desk at the front of the class and observed the incoming students. As they all settled in, she got up from her seat and began to pace around the room and talk.</p><p>            ‘Potion; are at the very core of wizarding culture. It is one of the most important subjects you will learn here at Hogwarts, and it is also one of the most dangerous ones. Here you will learn how to brew cures for almost every illness, and how to make poisons which could slay even the toughest mountain troll without leaving a trace. Many wizards believe that wand-waving is the ultimate solution for any trouble that may occur. They forget, however, that nothing can stand in the way of a well-brewed, and well placed, concoction. Therefore, any potion you wish to produce must be brewed with extreme care, for should you get even one small detail wrong, the results could prove disastrous.’</p><p>            She finished her speech and pointed her wand to the board behind her. Writing appeared on it at an instant.</p><p>            ‘We will begin today with a simple Cure for Boils. This potion, as you may have guessed, removes boils, such as those produced by the Pimple Jinx. If everyone could please grab the ingredients that are written on the board and get back to their seats with their cauldrons placed in front of them. I will ask that you follow my example carefully as we brew today’s potion. Should you get it right, there will be pink smoke rising from your cauldron.’</p><p>            Albus and Scorpius got up as the rest of the class scrambled for ingredients. They collected everything they needed from the list, Albus was particularly careful with the snake fangs and porcupine quills. They had spent the next hour or so sweating over their cauldrons as Professor McGarth’s instructions were repeated through the room while she demonstrated when and how to add each ingredient and what form of wand movement is required. Albus found potion brewing difficult but satisfying. At the end of class, only Rose had managed to produce that pink smoke which awarded her 10 points for Gryffindor. Albus’ potion had deep purple smoke rising out of it. He thought he did alright for his first class, at least his potion was not as bad as Connor’s, going off constantly in what looked like green and yellow fireworks with an awful stench. They packed up their possessions as Professor McGarth vanished their potions with a wave of her wand. Albus and Scorpius had decided to pass their short break in one of the sunny courtyards. The weather was still quite warm, and they wanted to take advantage of the last few sunny days of the year before it became dreary again.</p><p>            At 10:40 they hurried off to their first History of Magic class on the first floor. They again took their seats in a middle row of the classroom and began to pull out their notebooks. To Albus’ surprise, one of the Ravenclaw students walked over to the front of the class and began to speak loudly.</p><p>            ‘Hello everyone! Good morning! My name is Michael Poults, and I am a fellow student here at Hogwarts. I just wanted to introduce myself and wish you all a very BLESSED day! I am looking forward to getting to know and befriend EACH and EVERY ONE of you.’</p><p>            He then got back to his seat, the closest one to the board, and began talking to, or rather intensely questioning, the girl which sat closest to him. Several people giggled and stared at him in amazement. Who was this kid?</p><p>            ‘What in Merlin’s beard…?’ began Scorpius.</p><p>            Before he could finish, however, Professor Binns, the only ghost-professor at Hogwarts, floated out of the board and into the classroom. This bizarre sight had silenced all the other students as well. Professor Binns immediately began to talk and give his lecture in a dry, reedy voice that droned on and on monotonously. The most boring 45 minutes in Albus’ life ensued. He could not believe that somebody could make characters like Uric the Oddball and Emeric the Evil so tedious and unentertaining. The only one that seemed immune to the supernatural powers of boredom that Professor Binns appeared to possess was Michael Poults. He had not only sat upright and appeared to be fascinated by everything the old ghost had said, he even, to Professor Binns’ noticeable surprise, had raised his hand and stopped the lecture to ask several long, complicated questions that did not make much sense.</p><p>            Albus did not know much about all the other classes at Hogwarts, but he had hoped that none of them was going to be as bad an experience as this one was. They now had a little over 2 hours to relax and enjoy their time before their next class. They decided to go back to their dormitory at first. Albus wanted to hang his favourite poster of Gonçalo Flores, the Brazilian Quidditch Chaser he had admired. Scorpius sat on his four-poster bed, which was right next to Albus’, and watched him as he tried to perform a simple sticking charm they had read about. They shared their dormitory with 4 other male first-year students. On Albus’ other side was Daniel Slughorn’s bed. He was a pompous yet nice and clever boy who was the grandnephew of Horace Slughorn, the famous Potions Master whose portrait hung in the Slytherin common room. Across the room from them were the beds of Janus Flint, a chubby boy with buck teeth, Henry Burke, and Gregory Avery. Both Burke and Avery seemed to embody the reputation that Slytherin House had tried to distance itself from in recent years. They seemed cruel and unfriendly. The boys did not really talk or acknowledge Albus and Scorpius, which they figured was a good thing, they mostly stuck together telling rude jokes and thinking of cruel ways to trick students from other houses. Daniel and Janus seemed to be friendly enough, however. They liked playing Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap together in their free time.</p><p>            Once Albus was done hanging his poster, they went upstairs again for lunch. They spent the rest of their time afterwards sitting under the warm sun at the lake’s shore. They had Transfiguration class with the Hufflepuffs next. Professor Montgomery, the handsome and smartly dressed wizard with jet black hair Albus had seen at the Sorting, was a strict yet effective teacher who wasted no time during class to over-explain the subject.</p><p>            ‘Transfiguration,’ he said, ‘is one of the most complex and dangerous subjects you will learn here at Hogwarts – ’</p><p>            ‘Where have we heard that before…?’ whispered Scorpius as Albus tried to suppress a snigger.</p><p>            However, Transfiguration soon proved to be exactly what Professor Montgomery had said it would be. He quickly wrote various intricate formulas on the board and had started explaining the various methodologies in the subject of Transfiguration alphabet before handing them all boxes of matches and requested they transform them into needles. He then proceeded to give them their very first batch of homework of the week (a short essay,  10 inches on the importance of the Transfiguration substantial formula by next week).</p><p>            Charms class proved to be far more entertaining than History of Magic and far less difficult than Transfiguration to Albus’ relief. Professor Flitwick was a kind and understanding teacher who was always ready to help students with performing the charms assigned. They learned about the hard to pronounce Levitation Charm, Wingardium Leviosa, and had tried to perform it in class on a series of fluffy feathers to varying degrees of success. Albus was reminded of a funny story Aunt Hermione had told him about Uncle Ron’s failed attempts at performing the charm in their first year. Albus had also overheard a couple of Hufflepuffs talking about this ‘strange new kid called Michael Poults’ and how he ‘introduced himself to everyone as if he were the teacher’ in their Defence Against the Dark Arts class. He smiled to himself, at least classes with him would not be boring.</p><p>            They had ended their first day at Hogwarts with an uplifted mood. Yes, there were still some whispers and giggles almost everywhere they went within the castle grounds and some classes seemed to be either difficult or boring, but it was nevertheless a good start for their time at Hogwarts. Albus had decided that, so far, Charms had been his favourite class. He was wondering, however, if that was about to change. They had Defence Against the Dark Arts tomorrow, and out of all the subjects he was to learn at the school this one intrigued Albus the most. He wanted to learn all about the different dark creatures and jinxes and curses that existed in the world. He liked to imagine himself a hero, conqueror of all things evil, the champion of the Wizarding World. Maybe then his father would stop being so gentle around him. Maybe then, everyone would see that he was not simply the heir to Harry Potter’s famous legacy but his own, unique, and better person than his father was.</p><p>*</p><p>Albus and Scorpius woke to Albus’ self-ringing bell alarm the next morning. They had double Transfiguration first that day which was just as confusing and as hard to master as in the previous day. They again had to memorise formulas and try to transfigure matches into needles (this time Albus’ match had turned light silver). Albus left this class exhausted and was ready for the more interesting one which came after the break. Defence Against the Dark Arts would be the first class they had with the Gryffindors since yesterday. He had not really spoken to Rose ever since they had left the train and, Albus had decided, he should try and talk to her then. As they were climbing the stairs to the third floor Scorpius grabbed his bag with a frightened look on his face.</p><p>            ‘I forgot my book!’ he said as he ran back downstairs. ‘I’ll meet you in class, save me a seat!’ he called back at Albus.</p><p>            Albus continued climbing upstairs. He finally reached the Defence Against the Dark Arts and saw the door was wide open. He entered the classroom and chose a seat in the second row from the front of the class.</p><p>            ‘Hi Rose,’ he said to his cousin who sat in front of him and next to Connor.</p><p>            ‘Hey Al, how are you doing so far?’ said Rose.</p><p>            ‘Not too bad, I think I liked Charms the best up until now. How about you?’</p><p>            ‘I’m alright, I like Transfiguration the most. It’s really very useful you know. I’m just sorry we have to take it with the Ravenclaws, that Michael Poults kid is really annoying…’</p><p>            ‘Oh, you ran into him huh? What’s his deal, right?’ Albus chuckled. He was glad that Rose was still speaking to him. He had been afraid that she would not like him as much now that they were in separate houses.</p><p>            ‘He’s the most obnoxious kid I’ve ever met! And he keeps asking all those stupid questions that take up half the time we have in class! Just…’ she let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Speaking of weird kids though,’ she said with a meaningful look at Connor, ‘that Scorpius Malfoy you keep hanging around with…’</p><p>            ‘What about him?’ Albus cut her suddenly.</p><p>            ‘Well… we think his intentions might not be…’</p><p>            ‘He’s that bloody Lost Child of You Know Who that’s what about him!’ interrupted Connor.</p><p>            ‘What in the name of Merlin’s soggy underpants are you talking about?’ asked Albus. ‘He is too young to be You Know Who’s kid you halfwit!’</p><p>            ‘You’re the halfwit you pompous little sh…’</p><p>            ‘Stop it!’ said Rose. ‘Look, Al, we just think he might be trying to befriend you to gain something. It just doesn’t sit right that a Malfoy would be so friendly with you, he must have some other motive.’</p><p>            ‘You two have lost your marbles!’ retorted Albus. ‘Scorpius has been a good friend to me. He was lonely, and it’s not like you’ve been awfully kind to him! He just needed a friend and I think he’s alright. “You Know Who’s kid” don’t make me laugh.’</p><p>            ‘Well, maybe he’s pretending to be eleven years old? He could be using a De-Ageing Potion, I read about it in <em>Magical Drafts and Potions</em>. What do you really know about him Al? Can you really trust this kid?’</p><p>            ‘Whatever Rose…’ said Albus as he noticed his friend arriving in class.</p><p>            ‘Just be careful that’s all,’ she whispered and turned back around.</p><p>            Professor Selwyn, the shaggy man with buck teeth and slightly misaligned eyes who spoke to Professor Montgomery that night of the Sorting, stepped into the room. Albus had noticed he had a slight limp as he walked over to the front and faced the class. </p><p>            ‘Defence Against the Dark Arts, while not the most practical of subjects, is still one of the more important subjects you learn here at Hogwarts. Over the course of at least five years, you will learn all about creatures such as Dementors, Werewolves, Banshees, and Boggarts, along with spells such as the Unforgivable curses, various defensive spells, and various offensive ones. These, most likely and hopefully, will not be useful for the majority of you in your day-to-day lives. Nevertheless, should the need arise, it is extremely beneficial to know about the various dangers that life outside of Hogwarts may hold and how one would do to defend against them. It is my wish that this year you’ll acquire a basic foundation for the expertise which will serve you in your later years.’</p><p>            Albus felt excitement flare through him. He was ready. He wanted to learn all about Werewolves, Dementors, and the Unforgivable Curses. He was not ready, however, for what came next.</p><p>            ‘One of the most basic spells you will need in any encounter with a dark creature, wizard or witch who wishes to do you harm, is the Vermillious Charm. It is a simple charm that, when performed correctly, shoots red sparks out of the end of your wand. This charm is very useful in alerting any wizard or witch in the vicinity that you are in trouble and require assistance.’</p><p>            Albus felt a little disappointed by the end of class. He felt that the reputation of the Defence Against the Dark Arts class had misled him a little. Were they going to spend the entire year learning about how to call others for help?</p><p>             ‘Well, that was a bit boring, wasn’t it? I suppose we’ve got to start somewhere though. Still, I would’ve liked it better if we focused on dark creatures first…’ said Scorpius as they descended the stairs to History of Magic. ‘What’s wrong?’ he looked at Albus suddenly as he noticed his grim expression and lack of talk.</p><p>            ‘Nothing, I was just thinking,’ lied Albus.</p><p>            History of Magic was again another boring and tedious ordeal. By the end of class, Professor Binns had not bothered hiding his frustration and annoyance with Michael Poults as he, again, bombarded him with tedious questions. This was an impressive feat on its own as Professor Binns had seemed to scarcely notice any other student in his class. Poults had a habit of what seemed to Albus as raising his hand to ask a question but then only beginning to formulate it once he had been called to ask it. Albus did not think he could take another year of this. He felt relieved that Tuesday was a short day in comparison to the others.</p><p>            They spent the rest of the day in their common room, only surfacing again for dinner at 19:00. Albus, despite Scorpius’ constant questioning, had decided not to share what Rose had said to him earlier. Her words still rang in his ears, however. Could he really trust Scorpius? When you think about it, I really haven’t known him for that long, thought Albus, as he lay in bed that night. Could Scorpius be lying about who he was? He wanted to confide in someone he could trust. Maybe Hagrid will know something about this. He could ask him when Albus, Rose, and James all come over for tea on Friday.</p><p>*</p><p>            The only new class Albus had the following day was Herbology. Professor Neville Longbottom, who taught the class, also happened to be a close family friend and Albus’ godfather. Though he expected no special treatment from him, Albus had thought it would not be too bad a class if the kind, friendly, and caring Uncle Neville was their teacher. He was not wrong. Professor Longbottom proved to be a very enthusiastic and engaging teacher for the subject he was teaching. He had truly seemed in his element as he taught them all about Wormwood and Dittany and their various uses in Potions. He had also made them all laugh when he told them that, ironically, he had failed at Potions miserably as a student. The only downside was that they had Herbology with Ravenclaw, which meant another lesson where he had to endure Michael Poults’ incessant questions and unamusing, interrupting quips. Professor Longbottom seemed to hide his frustration very well as he repeated obvious facts for Poults repeatedly for the benefit of nobody else. He caught Albus at the end of class as he was leaving Greenhouse one.</p><p>            ‘Hey Albus, I never really had the chance to say hi to you yet. Is everything going alright at school so far?’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, everything’s fine. Some classes are more interesting than others but that’s nothing to worry about, right?’ replied Albus.</p><p>            Professor Longbottom chuckled. ‘Yeah, it will get much better eventually, once you go over the basics. That’s great though, nice to see that you’re getting settled. Listen if there’s anything you need, anything at all, any questions or concerns, God knows I had a lot of those in my first year here, you know you can come to me, right?’</p><p>            ‘Of course. Professor Longbottom.’</p><p>            ‘You can call me Neville when it’s just the two of us Albus. I’m still your godfather,’ he winked.</p><p>            ‘Right, see you, Neville.’ As he turned to leave, however, a sudden realisation had struck Albus. ‘Hey, Neville?’ he turned back to his godfather.</p><p>            ‘Yes, Albus?’</p><p>            ‘Is there any news about the Lost Child? Do they know who it might be?’ asked Albus.</p><p>            ‘Oh,’ Neville’s face became darker and more serious. ‘We’re all looking into it, Albus, there’s nothing you need to worry about right now. Just focus on your studies and make sure not to wander the castle past hours. Have a good rest of your day, I’ll see you again tomorrow.’</p><p>            There was a certain finality in his godfather’s tone. Albus had not dared question him further. What is he up to? And what did he mean by “<em>We’re</em> looking into it”? thought Albus as he joined Scorpius on his way back to the common room. They had most of the rest of the day off until Astronomy that evening (another class they had with Ravenclaw to Albus’ dismay).</p><p>            As they sat in a corner of the common room playing Wizard’s Chess, Albus looked out the window into the depths of the lake outside. He was thinking about what Neville could possibly be hiding from him, and how he could make sure his friend Scorpius was not the Lost Child in disguise.</p><p>            ‘Al? what’s going on? Is everything alright?’ said Scorpius suddenly, as his knight dragged yet another of Albus’s pawns off the board.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, sorry I was just daydreaming,’ jumped Albus.</p><p>            ‘You’ve been this way for a day now, is something bothering you?’</p><p>            Albus was thinking. Maybe it is worth a shot telling his friend about Rose’s suspicions? At least to see how he reacts…</p><p>            ‘Well… it’s silly, to be honest…’ Albus chuckled nervously, ‘Rose thinks that you might be… well that you might be… the eh… the Lost Child.’</p><p>            Scorpius went pale immediately as these words had left Albus’ mouth. </p><p>            ‘I heard some kids whisper that when I passed them the other day too… but… I can’t be… I’m too young. You don’t believe that do you?’ he said with a hint of panic in his voice.</p><p>            ‘Of course not!’ replied Albus almost too quickly. He did not wish to tell Scorpius what Rose had said about the De-Ageing Potion. He was already sorry he had said anything. As they went to bed that night, Albus remembered something he had forgotten he’d been dreading in light of the whole Lost Child debacle, they had Flying Lessons tomorrow. Albus twisted and turned in his bed as he thought about what his first time riding a broom would be like. He knew both his parents had been expert flyers, but he had no experience whatsoever on a broom. He was always a little clumsy and never really liked heights. But then again, he did like Quidditch a lot. I guess we’ll see tomorrow, he thought as he drifted off to an uneasy sleep.</p><p>*</p><p>The next day after lunch they all gathered at the designated area on the castle grounds. Some of the Gryffindors kept shooting weird looks at Scorpius as they stood in silence. It appeared that the rumour about him being the Lost Child had spread among the Gryffindors. Their flying instructor came over a few minutes later. She was a thin, young woman with short red hair and narrow eyes.</p><p>            ‘Good afternoon everyone!’ said the young witch cheerfully. ‘My name is Madam Grimelda Taranis, and I will be your Flying and Physical Education instructor for your time at Hogwarts. Some of your parents, and therefore some of you, may have not been aware, that the school had decided to introduce Physical Education into the curriculum in the last few years. This is part of the Ministry’s new efforts to introduce healthy habits and maintain the wellbeing of all students at the school. I hope you’re all ready to get going today. I will be teaching you the very basics of flying and then we will try to get you off the ground as soon as possible. I find that the best way to develop self-confidence in flying is to start it right off the bat. If, and only if, all of you will prove to me that you are capable of controlling your broom responsibly, we will all fly over for a little airborne tour of the grounds. Sounds good? Alright if everyone could please grab a broom from the rack over there’ she pointed to her left, ‘and stand here in a row in front of me.’</p><p>            They all scrambled to choose the best ones out of the notoriously bad selection of school brooms. Moments later they were all lined up in front of Madam Taranis. Albus trembled with nerves. This was it. He was going to fly for real now, he had to make a good impression. He wanted to be selected for his House Quidditch Team and for that, he had to fly expertly on his first try. Just like my famous dad, he thought with a jolt of nausea.</p><p>            ‘Now lay your broom on the side of your dominant arm,’ said Madam Taranis as she demonstrated with her own broom, ‘like so. And when you feel like you are ready, concentrate on your broom and say, with emotion, Up!’ As she said the word, the broom jumped straight to her right hand.</p><p>            Soon there were shouts of ‘Up!’ from all around Albus. Some brooms jumped up to their owners’ hands, others just jiggled a little, and some did not move at all. Scorpius, who had already flown before, had called ‘Up!’ and his broom immediately jumped to his hand. He looked at Albus with a smile and said, ‘Common Al, you try it!’</p><p>            Albus focused on the broom to his right and concentrated with all his might on it. He thought hard about having his broom in his hand and called ‘Up!’ Nothing happened. The broom did not even move slightly. Albus tried again, ‘Up!’ but he could not get the broom to move. He stood there for what seemed like an eternity and tried again and again with increasing desperation to yell at his broom to jump into his open hand, but nothing had happened.</p><p>            ‘Up! Common you useless twig, up! UP!!’ yelled Albus. By that point, he had noticed that everyone’s eyes were on him. He was the only one there who had not made his broom move yet. Some of the Gryffindors began to giggle.</p><p>            ‘Maybe he’s a fake Potter just like his friend is a fake Malfoy!’ called a tall, auburn-haired Gryffindor.</p><p>            ‘Shut up Drake!’ yelled Rose angrily at the boy.</p><p>            ‘Protecting your fake cousin Weasley? Do you like having girls protect you Phoney – Potty?’ said a large, wire-haired boy, a friend of Drake’s.</p><p>            ‘I said shut up McLaggen!’ said Rose as she reached for her wand.</p><p>            ‘Hey that’s enough over there!’ called Madam Taranis. ‘It’s alright Potter, some people can have a bit of trouble on their first go. Try again, breathe slowly and concentrate on your broom, feel it hopping into your hand.’</p><p>            Albus was drenched in nervous sweat by that point. He wanted to bury himself deep in the ground. No, I have to shut this out, I can’t let them make fun of me like this, he thought. He tried concentrating again on his broom with every bit of will he had and, finally, it had jumped into his hand.</p><p>            Drake made a rude noise as the broom rose into Albus’ hand.</p><p>            ‘Stop it you troll!’ called Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘Oooh be careful Johnny, Blonde-mort is getting angry at you!’ called McLaggen.</p><p>            ‘Why don’t you go…’ began Albus.</p><p>            ‘Enough of this!’ called Madam Taranis. ‘Now, I want you to mount your brooms like this,’ she demonstrated by swinging her leg carefully over her broom, ‘and rise up in the air a little by kicking off and pulling your broom upwards slightly, and then come back down to the ground slowly by leaning forward.’</p><p>            They all performed the simple move with their brooms. Albus felt a little better when he managed to rise up in the air a couple of feet. He then tried leaning forward gently to get back down and… *CRASH*. He fell face-first onto the ground. Drake, McLaggen, and their third crony laughed their heads off as Madam Taranis helped Albus up and made sure he was okay. His nose was bleeding, she fixed it with a flick of her wand and told Scorpius to take him over to the Hospital Wing to make sure he is okay. ‘…and no flying around the grounds today! You should be ashamed of yourselves!’ she told the laughing boys.</p><p>            ‘Thanks a lot, Phoney-Potty!’ McLaggen called after them as they walked back towards the castle.</p><p>            ‘Phoney Potter and the Secret Blondemort!’ called Drake as his mates roared with laughter.</p><p>            Albus was on the verge of tears when they reached the Hospital Wing, Madam Hannah Longbottom, the matron, and Neville’s wife, ran over to them as they stepped into the ward.</p><p>            ‘What’s wrong Albus?’ she asked with a concerned look.</p><p>            ‘Fell off his broom,’ said Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘I’m fine,’ said Albus, ‘she fixed me up.’</p><p>            ‘Let me have a look,’ said Madam Longbottom. ‘Hmm yes you seem okay, go wash this off in one of the bathrooms, you should be fine.’</p><p>            As Albus was washing his face in a sink at the nearest bathroom, he had noticed that Scorpius had seemed just as upset as he felt.</p><p>            ‘Why does it have to be me? As if I didn’t have anything else that’s pulling me down here, being a Malfoy and all. Why did they have to decide I was the Lost Child?’</p><p>            ‘Don’t know, they don’t seem to like me very much either,’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘You know my dad said that they considered sending me to Durmstrang, maybe they should have done that.’</p><p>            ‘No! You’ll be alright, trust me it’ll pass, they’ll figure out you can’t be the Child eventually.’</p><p>            Scorpius seemed unconvinced. In fact, his mood seemed to get worse as the day progressed, which was not helping much since Albus himself was in a terrible mood as well. Scorpius avoided Albus’ eyes for the most part and was rather withdrawn. Albus had finally had enough as they were getting ready for bed that night.</p><p>            ‘Look I really don’t think you can be the Lost Child okay? I’m sorry I even brought that up at all yesterday… If you want… we can… I dunno… look for who it actually is and prove that you’re innocent,’ said Albus as he was putting on his pyjamas.</p><p>            ‘We could…’ said Scorpius slowly. He seemed a little relieved at this offer, as though it confirmed that Albus was on his side. ‘But how would we even go about doing that?’</p><p>            ‘I’ll have to think about it. Maybe we can start by looking into Voldemort’s history? There’s this book about him, I forgot what it’s called but we can look in the library.’</p><p>*</p><p>Friday was the freest day of their week. They had spent most of it searching the library for books about the life of Voldemort. The problem was that most books that mentioned him, or even dark wizards in general, were kept at the restricted section. Madam Pince, the intimidating librarian, seemed to be everywhere and nowhere in the library at once. They could not possibly make their way into the Restricted Section without her noticing and could not think of a good excuse as to why two first-years would need to search for books over there. They resorted to scanning the pages of books about recent wizarding history.</p><p>            ‘Look at this,’ said Scorpius as he was holding a copy of <em>Modern Magical Events by Mandy Brocklehurst</em>, ‘“The full account of the life, defeat, rebirth, and death of the Dark Lord can be read about in <em>The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts: 2<sup>nd</sup> Edition</em>,”’ said Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘And I bet you it’s only available over there,’ said Albus as he pointed at the Restricted Section.</p><p>            ‘Not necessarily if it’s just a book about the history of the Dark Arts. It’s worth a shot to look.’</p><p>            They eventually found the book at the Historical Section of the library; however, it did not prove very useful after-all.</p><p>            ‘There’s nothing here about any wives or girlfriends that he had and nothing at all about any children. He didn’t seem to even want any children!’ said Scorpius with frustration. ‘Why do they think that Lost Child is even real? Maybe that woman they found was just lying or delusional?’</p><p>            ‘It’s possible, but we’ll have to make sure right? We can’t take it for granted. For all we know, he could have kept his kid hidden or even abroad’ Albus looked at his watch as he said that. ‘I have to go now, tea with Hagrid. Look you keep looking into as many books as Madam Pince will let you, I’ll try and ask Hagrid if he knows anything. My dad always said Hagrid is bad at keeping secrets maybe he’ll let something he knows slip.’</p><p>            As Albus made his way through the castle to Hagrid’s Hut he ran into his brother James.</p><p>            ‘What’s up Al?’ asked his brother. ‘How’s life at Slytherin? Are you a dark wizard yet?’</p><p>            ‘Shut up,’ said Albus.</p><p>            James laughed. ‘Sorry, sorry, but why are you so tense Al? It’s that Drake kid and his gang, right? Listen if those trolls screw with you anymore you let me know, I’ll make sure they wake up with pigtails for noses, or maybe something else, I don’t know depends on what I’m in the mood for… Common Al don’t be all sour like that we’re all having a laugh, nothing’s serious.’</p><p>            ‘It’s not very funny, words can hurt you know,’ replied Albus.</p><p>            James snorted. ‘Look, I told you if those gargoyles are picking on you again, I’ll make then stop. What else do you want?’ </p><p>            ‘They keep saying that Scorpius is the Lost Child.’</p><p>            ‘Well, they might be right on this one, how much do you really know about this Malfoy kid Al?’ asked James.</p><p>            ‘Don’t you start now too! This is the stupidest rumour I’ve ever heard!’         </p><p>            ‘I’m just saying why is he so friendly with you specifically?’</p><p>            ‘Hey Al, James, what’s up?’ said Rose as they reached Hagrid’s Hut. She was waiting outside for them. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked when she noticed Albus’ angry face.</p><p>            ‘Nothing,’ he replied unconvincingly.</p><p>            ‘Those idiots Drake, McLaggen, and Gordon, I told them I’ll hex them next time they get near you,’ said Rose.</p><p>            ‘It’s not that!’ called Albus, ‘It’s the fact that everyone seems to think that my only friend here is some sort of a new Voldemort!’</p><p>            ‘WE’RE your friends too Al…’ said Rose.</p><p>            ‘Hey! What’s all this shoutin’ abou’ eh?’ said Hagrid’s familiar voice from inside the hut. The door opened.</p><p>            ‘Hi Hagrid, how have you been?’</p><p>            ‘I’m alrigh’ Rosie, come in, come in,’ said Hagrid as he spotted her.</p><p>            They sat down around the oversized table inside of Hagrid’s Hut as he served them tea in bucket-sized mugs and a batch of his infamous rock cakes.</p><p>            ‘You three doin’ okay?’ he looked at them fondly. ‘Ah I swear it seems like it was las’ week tha’ yer parents were sat at this very table wi’ me all tiny like yerselves,’ he said with a smile. They spent the next hour or so talking to Hagrid about their first week in school and their lives as a whole. When it was Albus’ turn to speak he had struggled to talk about his flying lessons the day before.</p><p>            ‘Those jerks really had no right to pick on you!’ said Rose defensively.</p><p>            ‘But it’s okay if they pick on Scorpius? Or if you do?’ said Albus resentfully.</p><p>            ‘Well, Al… I…’ she started.</p><p>            ‘What’s all this abou’?’ said Hagrid.</p><p>            ‘Rose and James, and probably half the school at this point, think that my friend Scorpius Malfoy is Voldemort’s Lost Child!’ called Albus.</p><p>            ‘Rubbish!’ said Hagrid waving it off. ‘He’s too young for tha’ anyhow.’</p><p>            ‘But Hagrid, don’t you think it’s a bit weird that…’ started Rose.</p><p>            ‘Look Rosie, I don’ know this Scorpius kid, but I knew his father. And though he was a righ’ little… somethin’… he wouldn’t go abou’ adoptin’ and hidin’ no child o’ You Know Who. He truly hated him by the end of it. There’s a reason why the Malfoys are not in Azkaban righ’ now eh?’</p><p>            ‘But what if…’</p><p>            ‘If yer Uncle Harry had any reason ter suspect Scorpius, Rosie, believe me, he would let you know.’</p><p>            That claim finally seemed to satisfy Rose and James enough for them to leave the topic alone.</p><p>            ‘I think you owe someone an apology,’ said Albus.</p><p>            ‘Right, I’m sorry Al.’</p><p>            ‘Not me you dolt! Scorpius!’</p><p>            ‘Oh, but do I have to? Oh, okay fine I’ll talk to him on Monday,’ said Rose when she caught Albus’ look.</p><p>            ‘He really isn’t bad you know…’</p><p>            ‘There yeh go, everythin’ better now eh,’ said Hagrid as he bit one of the rock cakes which made an alarming crackling noise.</p><p>            ‘Hagrid,’ said Albus, ‘do you know if they’re any closer to finding who the Child is though?’</p><p>            ‘‘fraid not Al, yer father probably knows best bu’ I wouldn’ trust him ter tell ya. Besides, you don’ need any more on yer plate than school righ’ now. Jus’ take yer time, focus on yer studies, and don’ go looking fer trouble yeh hear me? Tha’ applies ter you two as well!’ he pointed at James and Rose. They all looked at him in silence. ‘I wan’ yeh ter promise me! Say “we promise we won’ get in trouble Hagrid.”’</p><p>            ‘We promise we won’t get in trouble Hagrid,’ they chanted.</p><p>            ‘Good’ said the gamekeeper, ‘I know yer probably gon’ break this promise the momen’ yeh walk out this door James, but you two I hope will keep it. Now I think it’s abou’ time you return ter the castle, it’s gettin’ late and I need ter go check on Grawpy. Please come by an’ visit anytime s’long as it’s no’ too late!’</p><p>            As they walked back to the castle Albus’ gaze wandered over to the Forbidden Forest. He saw Hagrid’s distant figure walk into it and disappear. He remembered all the stories his father had told him about his many visits to this forest. If only there was a way to get his father to tell him who he thinks the Lost Child might be… He was sure his father would not agree to tell Albus what he knows. But if there was some way to find out regardless… some way to…</p><p>            Albus’ had a spark of brilliance. He had an idea. If they succeeded, and that was a big “if”, they would not just learn what his father’s suspicions were, but potentially the Child’s full identity. They would have to break a lot of rules for this, thought Albus, but it was worth a shot.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. A Dirty Old Inn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sitting room was quite small; one couch and two chairs sat on top of a threadbare carpet facing a small dirty fireplace. Above the fireplace was a single large oil painting of a blonde girl in her mid-teens. The girl was smiling politely as she observed the two men who occupied the room.</p><p>            ‘So, what do you reckon? Is it one of the teachers?’ asked Aberforth, the bartender of the Hog's Head. He was very old at that point, considerably older than his brother was when he had died. Yet he was still sharp, and his eyes still reflected the same serene wisdom of the man Harry so admired.</p><p>            ‘Hard to tell right now. It could be one of the teachers, it could be a student that uses some potion or spell to young-e-fy themselves, it could also just be some stupid rumour’ said Harry as he glanced at his watch. It was late, almost midnight. ‘He should be here soon with some info.’</p><p>            ‘Humph...’ grunted the old bartender. ‘It’s been a while since you graced me with your presence Potter.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah well, I don’t usually spend much time in this part of the country’ replied Harry.</p><p>            It was true. Though Harry’s job meant that he often came across, and prosecuted, many of the patrons of the Hog's Head Inn, he did not usually spend much time chasing them up and down the country anymore. That was a job for the younger wizards and witches who worked for him. This was a different mission, however, and Harry wanted to conduct his investigations personally. If there was any possibility that he was potentially dealing with a new Voldemort, he wanted to be in the thick of things. Besides, there was another reason why Harry decided not to send anyone else to the Hog's Head that night.</p><p>            ‘Too fancy to do any real work now, eh? Well good for you. I wasn’t surprised when you got promoted to be the top dog of magical law enforcement, but why would you leave your nice office for my smelly tavern? Why not send somebody else?’ asked Aberforth.</p><p>            ‘I can’t REALLY trust anybody in my office now, can I? There’s been a murder and a plot that involves a potential heir to Voldemort. If there are Death Eaters involved, I can’t trust anyone in my vicinity not to be Imperiused or, even worse, secretly working with whoever committed the murder.’</p><p>            ‘I see. And how do you know I’m not Imperiused?’ asked the old man.</p><p>            ‘You’ve always been a grumpy old goat Aberforth, the day you greet me nicely into your pub with open arms is the day I’ll start suspecting you.’</p><p>            Aberforth chuckled. ‘Well said. It’s time now, isn’t it? He should’ve been here already.’</p><p>            A moment after the old man spoke, a soft knock was heard from the front door below them. Aberforth got up and left the room immediately. He was quite agile for a man of his age, just like his brother, Albus Dumbledore, had been. Harry had thought about his old mentor more often than not these days. He felt a sharp twinge of sadness and grief whenever he did. He missed the old headmaster, his wise counsel, his planning, and his infinite sympathy.</p><p>            The door to the sitting room had opened. Neville entered the room with Aberforth at his rear holding three dusty bottles of butterbeer. He nodded at Harry as he sat down in one of the chairs. Aberforth took the other chair after he handed them both their bottles.</p><p>            ‘What a first week of term you’ve given me… investigating my own colleagues and students, I can’t say it’s been a load of fun Harry,’ said Neville.</p><p>            ‘Did you find out anything though?’ asked Harry eagerly.</p><p>            ‘Well, I have a few suspects. Though it is worth mentioning that there hasn’t been any suspicious behaviour that I’ve noticed so far’ added the Herbology teacher. ‘Anyway, you’ve described the young Tom Riddle as a handsome, tall, black-haired, dark-eyed, and pale-skinned man of supreme skill and above average-intelligence, is that right? So naturally, I looked into any witch or wizard at Hogwarts who might fit any or all of these descriptions. We can also agree that, if the Child is not impersonating anyone who was already at Hogwarts using a Polyjuice Potion or such, they would most likely be a Slytherin, since being a descendant of Voldemort will make them a descendant of Salazar Slytherin as well. The students I looked into generally seem to be either too young, though they can hide their true age, of course, don’t fit the physical description, or too unremarkable. Thomas Delamont, a seventh-year, is the only exception. He is smart, polite, top marks in all his classes, has most of the physical characteristics we’re looking for, except that his eyes are green, and he generally seems to be a little “too decent”. There are a few problems however, he is a Hufflepuff, muggle-born, and he hasn’t done anything suspicious in his seven years in school.’</p><p>            ‘Did you run a background check…?’ began Harry.</p><p>            ‘His backstory checks out. Both his parents are a pair of polite muggles who look remarkably like him. So, unless there is some form of advanced trickery involved, I would say he’s not our guy,’ replied Neville.</p><p>            ‘What about the Polyjuice Potion route?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘I don’t think it’s reasonable to go that way. It would be too difficult to hide the individual you’re impersonating along with stealing a whole heap of ingredients,’ said Aberforth.</p><p>            ‘It’s been done before,’ replied Harry.</p><p>            ‘Yes, but nothing is missing from the ingredients cupboards and nobody that I’ve seen is going around constantly drinking from a flask or carrying a large trunk around with them,’ said Neville. ‘By the way, did you check that map of yours?’ he asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘Nothing out of the ordinary on there. But then again, we don’t know the Child’s name, do we?’</p><p>            ‘Still, I’ll send you a list of students and staff, maybe you can compare them,’ said Neville.</p><p>            ‘What about teachers? New staff? Animals, maybe they’re an Animagus?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know about animals, there are too many living creatures around Hogwarts to really check everything. As for staff members… well… I’ve looked into all the new ones,’ Neville continued as he pulled out a list of names from inside his robes. ‘Madam Grimelda Taranis, the new Flying and Physical Education instructor doesn’t seem to fall in any category we’re looking for, she’s just good at flying and sports and not much else. Professor Thomas Selwyn, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, doesn’t fit any of the physical descriptions we’re looking for either, talented ex-Auror from a respected family and a background that goes back centuries. Not much to go on there but I’m keeping him in mind. Professor Miriam McGarth, Potions Master and one of the newer members of staff, started back in twenty eleven after Slughorn retired for good. Get this, black hair, pale, attractive, exceedingly talented, a Slytherin, and a very intelligent woman, so much so that she almost seems to find life at Hogwarts dull and boring.’</p><p>            ‘But that’s perfect, almost too perfect, why didn’t you mention her first?’ asked Harry as he was dreading the answer.</p><p>            ‘Well, there’s one big issue, she was born in nineteen eighty-three, a full two years after Voldemort’s first fall. I’ve checked the lists and paperwork on her, and they are all legitimate. She was born in Indiana, USA, to an Irish American mother who died at birth and a muggle father who left before she was born. Got adopted by her aunt and moved to Ballycastle, attended Hogwarts with us, three years below, then travelled the world for a bit, worked for a potions company for a few years, and then started teaching at Hogwarts.’</p><p>            ‘You said she was three years below us? Laura Madley was three years below us too, could she possibly have known her?’</p><p>            ‘It’s possible, even likely, but they were in different houses and weren’t friends from what I know,’ replied Neville. ‘And again, her date and place of birth pretty much rule out the possibility of her being the Child. But I’ve saved the best for last, Professor Leviticus Montgomery, the Transfiguration teacher, only slightly older than us Harry, tall, dark hair, dark eyes, pale, handsome, talented, smart, and has a cloudy past. He was born in nineteen seventy-eight in Liverpool to a witch mother who died shortly after and, supposedly, a wizard father who raised him on his own. He attended Hogwarts with us and graduated two years prior, could not provide much information about himself after he’d left Hogwarts, just said he left the country because of the war, he finally returns shortly after the war to start teaching Transfiguration at Hogwarts after Minerva McGonagall became Headmistress.’</p><p>            ‘What doesn’t fit about him then?’ said Harry in a cynical tone.</p><p>            ‘He’s in Ravenclaw, but that doesn’t rule him out completely, he could have gone to the Sorting knowing that being in Slytherin would be suspicious, so he simply demanded to be in Ravenclaw. In any case, I’m keeping an eye on him and gathering more information about his past, maybe we’ll find something we can work with,’ said Neville.</p><p>            ‘How did you find out all this anyway?’ asked Aberforth, who looked both impressed and astonished with his old acquaintance.</p><p>            ‘Well, I did like Harry said: I invited each of them, alone, for a chat in the Three Broomsticks and told each of them that I suspect somebody else so I could both see their reactions and throw them off as to my true suspicions should I decide they are a good candidate for being the Child. You’d be surprised how talkative people get when they’re a few Firewhiskeys in, Aberforth’ said Neville.</p><p>            ‘Trust me, boy, I wouldn’t,’ said the old man.</p><p>            ‘The only one that got annoyed with my “innocent and friendly inquiries” was Leviticus Montgomery,’ finished Neville.</p><p>            Harry took another sip of his butterbeer. The argument for Montgomery was compelling. He was clearly trying to hide something.</p><p>            ‘Why did he get so upset with you?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘He said that I’m too nosey for my own good, and “why did I suddenly take such an interest in him after we’ve been working together for years now”. He also seemed quite upset that I would think Selwyn was the Child, almost as if he got insulted that I would think that,’ answered Neville.</p><p>            ‘I’ll have him looked up. You did great Neville, really, thank you.’ </p><p>            ‘Glad to help, always.’</p><p>            ‘If I could just interrupt for a second,’ said Aberforth suddenly, ‘why are you so frantically looking for this Child anyway? If they haven’t done anything wrong in, potentially, years they’ve been at Hogwarts, why bother exposing them? Maybe they just want to be left alone? Somebody got murdered, right? just investigate the murder and find out who done it, why go through all this trouble for someone who did not ask to be He Who Must Not Be Named’s kid?’</p><p>            ‘But we don’t know that they hadn’t done anything, do we? Maybe they’re recruiting a new Death Eater army secretly? We don’t know anything about this person, which is why we must treat them as potentially dangerous,’ replied Harry.</p><p>            ‘You know how many people would have to be in on this “secret army conspiracy”?! Something would’ve slipped out, especially to one of your spies Potter. I’ve had to ban Dung Fletcher from my inn again because he can’t move two feet without a dozen secret agents tailing him, and he’s just a lowlife fence!’ countered the old bartender.</p><p>            ‘Even if they are just the innocent and unwilling child of Voldemort, as you say Aberforth, we would still have to find out who they were so that we can potentially catch Madley’s killer before they can get to them.’</p><p>            ‘You must be so happy playing detective again eh Potter - MERLIN’S TOENAILS THIS ISN’T THE BLEEDING ORDER OF THE PHEONIX HEADQUARTERS!!!!’ Aberforth jumped in anger as another knock was heard on the door of the inn. He ran down the rickety wooden stairs again. A creak of the door was heard below them and Harry heard the voice of Dean Thomas speak.</p><p>            ‘Is Harry here? Ginny told me he’d be here now; I came as quickly as I could…’</p><p>            ‘Yes, he’s here you fool! Now come in before you wake up the entire village,’ said Aberforth as he slammed the door behind them.</p><p>            Dean walked into the sitting room with Aberforth a moment later, he looked tired. His greying hair, puffy red eyes, and posture made him look older than he was.</p><p>            ‘Did you find them?’ asked Harry as Dean sat next to him on the couch.</p><p>            ‘I did yeah, at that dark wizarding settlement in Ontario,’ began Dean.</p><p>            ‘You went to Malmire?’ asked Neville with astonishment.</p><p>            ‘That’s where our sources said all the released ex-Death Eaters had moved to. Had to disguise myself to blend in. It’s gotten pretty big now, Harry, must be several hundred people,’ continued Dean.</p><p>            ‘What did they say when you found them?’ inquired Harry.</p><p>            ‘Not much, considering they were all decomposing in a mass grave.’</p><p>            ‘WHAT?!’ yelled Harry and Neville in unison.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, the Carrows, Goyles, and Notts, all of them, even their children, it was brutal,’ said Dean with disgust. ‘When I asked around, all folks said was that they were all found dead one morning with no clues as to who did it, though I wouldn’t trust the fine citizens of Malmire to tell me the truth if I’m honest. I couldn’t stay there much longer in any case because they all started looking at me funny what with all the curious questions I was asking.’</p><p>            ‘But you’ve seen the bodies?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘Yes. I came back again during the night and dug them up - ’ the rest of his sentence was drowned in a flood of colourful swearing courtesy of Aberforth. There was another knock on the door.</p><p>            A moment later a skinny man with mousy brown hair had entered the room. Dennis Creevey was one of the better Aurors Harry had the pleasure of employing. Following his brother’s death at the Battle of Hogwarts, Dennis had sworn to hunt down, and throw in gaol, any dark witch or wizard he came across. He grew up to become an expert duellist and a far more impressive man than the child Harry had remembered from his school years.</p><p>            ‘Any news of Travers?’ asked Harry as both Dennis and Aberforth sat down in the, now fully occupied, sitting room.</p><p>            ‘Yes and no,’ said Dennis. ‘We haven’t been able to find him in Australia, but the Aurors’ Office there claims they’d heard of a man fitting his description in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. I left my task force to investigate while I came back here to deliver the news. He apparently killed a girl in Coffs Harbour a few months back which caused the Australian Ministry of Magic to find out about him. He fled afterwards and they couldn’t figure out where to. This report from Papua New Guinea is fairly old too, a couple of months, they sent three Aurors to the jungles and they never returned. I’m not surprised though, there’s all manner of crazy stuff in there, Acromantulas, Lethifolds, violent tribes of wizards and non-magical folk alike, dangerous place these jungles are. I wouldn’t be surprised if Travers is now lying dead somewhere in there.’</p><p>            ‘Maybe, or maybe he spread the rumour that he’s gone to Papua New Guinea to throw people off the fact he went to North America and paid a few of his old buddies a visit,’ said Harry. Dennis looked at him in confusion. Harry and Dean filled him in quickly about the Malmire carnage.</p><p>            ‘So, you think Travers killed that lot? And then what? He returned here and killed Madley too? I’m not sure Harry. Yes, he is cruel and murderous, we know that, but is he really capable enough to subdue and kill so many of his old pals? That would be a tough fight even for you,’ said Dennis.</p><p>            ‘He could have snuck up on them as they slept,’ added Neville.</p><p>            ‘He could have, but then why would he come back here of all places? And how did he find out about the Child?’ said Dennis.</p><p>            ‘Somebody in Malmire could’ve told him,’ added Dean.</p><p>            ‘How would they know about the Child though?’ retorted Dennis. ‘It’s not like it was common knowledge, and Voldemort wouldn’t exactly share this information with anyone.’</p><p>            ‘That’s another thing you know’ said Aberforth, ‘you keep ignoring the fact that having babies would be completely out of character for him. If I were planning on living forever, what use would I have for children? And besides, he didn’t seem like the type to… you know… be interested in that sort of thing… How do you know it’s all real?’</p><p>            ‘Like I said, we don’t. But we must look and be prepared for any possibility. Which is why we need to send someone back to Malmire to sniff around some more,’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘You want me to go back??’ asked Dean with a slight panic in his voice. ‘I don’t think they’d like to see my inquiring face again…’</p><p>            ‘Not you but maybe someone else, this time we’ll be more discreet about it, more cautious. Dennis, how fast can you recall your team from Australia?’</p><p>            ‘They can be back here in a couple of days I reckon. I take it you think the Papua New Guinea rumour is cold?’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, I think so, even if Travers did go there it’s likely he’s not around anymore,’ said Harry. ‘Just tell the Australians to keep us in the loop if something else comes up. I want you to then choose two of your best Aurors and go undercover to Malmire, and I mean deep undercover. New identities, faces, life stories, everything. Try to learn to fake Canadian accents if you can.’</p><p>            ‘Got it,’ replied Dennis.</p><p>            ‘And I want you to tell me everything you hear over there, I don’t care how irrelevant you think it may be, I need a full report every week. Do you understand me?’ continued Harry.</p><p>            ‘Yes sir. But how are we going to deliver these reports?’ asked Dennis curiously.</p><p>            ‘I’m gonna arrange some special form of communication with a new acquaintance of mine. Something more inconspicuous than owls or Patronus’s. He said I should write if I needed anything, well it turns out I do.’</p><p>            ‘Would you like me to still keep tabs on Montgomery Harry?’ asked Neville.</p><p>            ‘If you could Neville, that would be brilliant. Dean, I need you to stay in the country and run the murder investigation over here. There are very few people we can trust right now and it’s crucial that we do this right,’ finished Harry.</p><p>            ‘Well then if you don’t mind now,’ began Aberforth, ‘I only agreed to host this little meeting for Potter and Longbottom and it’s already incredibly late. Can we break up this party now?’ he looked at Dennis and Dean disapprovingly.</p><p>            ‘Sure Aberforth,’ said Harry as he got up from the couch, grabbed Neville’s empty bottle and handed them over to the bartender. The group all walked back down into the dark, grimy, and empty bar below. Harry opened the door and breathed in the cold night air. He heard Dean apologise to Aberforth for the intrusion behind him.</p><p>            ‘Come’on now Ab, don’t pretend like you didn’t enjoy eavesdropping on us a little,’ said Neville teasingly.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, yeah, just get out, I’ll see you around,’ grunted the old man.</p><p>            It had been a while since Harry had set foot in this dirty old inn. His visit had brought back memories of secret gatherings and preparations for war. Be it Dumbledore’s Army or right before the Battle of Hogwarts, he had always seemed to gather in the Hog’s Head before a major struggle.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Hogsmeade Weekend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As September drew to a close, a chill wind swept across the castle grounds. The leaves on the trees began to drop en masse. Riya Singh sat at a table by an open window in the Gryffindor common room on a late afternoon. She allowed herself a moment of reflection as she looked through the window at the reddening leaves outside. Riya and Molly were working on their Defence Against the Dark Arts homework which was due the following Tuesday. They had already been planning their prestigious careers outside of school since before their third year, but last year’s O.W.L.s and the start of their sixth year at Hogwarts made everything much more real. Riya planned on becoming a Healer at St. Mungo’s and Molly was planning on becoming an Auror. Molly Weasley II’s dark brown hair, role as Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team,  law enforcement ambitions, and her hatred of anything bureaucratic, made her as different from her father Percy as any child could be. Or at least she had claimed so. Both girls became fast friends in their first week of class, six years ago, and were virtually inseparable since. Though Molly was the more extroverted of the two, Riya had recently experienced a big surge in popularity. Her black hair, mocha complexion, and doe eyes had caught the attention of many boys both within Gryffindor and from other houses. Though she was born in London, she still carried a hint of her parents’ Punjabi accent which her current boyfriend called ‘exotically lovable’.</p><p>            ‘Are you still coming to Hogsmeade tomorrow?’ asked Molly. </p><p>            ‘Yes, and Tom said he can join us at the Three Broomsticks at one o’clock if that’s okay with you,’ replied Riya as she tore her gaze away from the open window and her daydream.</p><p>            The dashing Thomas Delamont was Riya’s latest boyfriend. Handsome, smart, and popular, Tom had impressed every faculty member at the school along with many of the students. This, in turn, had recently earned him the status, and duties, of Head Boy. Riya and Tom had started dating the previous June and have kept in contact over the summer. Tom had even paid Riya a visit in London for a couple of days in the summer. Riya could not help but reminisce over these days occasionally, when they were free, in love, and without a care in the world. Now Tom had had to pay more attention to his duties as Head Boy and his approaching N.E.W.T.s, they did not have much spare time to spend together anymore. A reality that was only exacerbated by the fact that he was a Hufflepuff, and she was a Gryffindor.</p><p>            ‘What’s he doing until then?’ asked Molly.</p><p>            ‘He said he’s got something to take care of first, didn’t say what,’ replied Riya.</p><p>            ‘And you didn’t ask?’</p><p>            ‘I don’t wanna nag, Molly.’</p><p>            ‘I’m just saying it’s a bit odd that he’s not telling you where he’s going or what he’s doing all these times he “can’t see you.”’</p><p>            ‘He’s got loads of responsibilities right now, being Head Boy and all, I’m glad he still makes the time to see me somehow. Besides, he’s the nicest guy in school - ’ started Riya.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, a little too nice if you ask me, nobody’s THAT perfect,’ said Molly.</p><p>            ‘You’ve had it out for him from the get-go, you just think I should’ve stayed with Jacob Nowak, that twit,’ replied Riya.</p><p>            ‘At least he’s a Gryffindor, and in our year, we don’t really know this Tom guy, we know Jacob.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, we know he’s a twit.’ </p><p>            Both girls laughed at that. No longer in their hectic fifth year, and not yet in their stressful seventh, it seemed that, in their sixth year, things had slowed down a little. They could now spend some more time on chats and banter that would otherwise not be possible.</p><p>            They kept working on their essays in silence as the sky outside slowly turned a shade of dark blue. After a couple more hours, Molly was the first to call it quits. She bid her friend good night and walked over to the door leading to the girl’s dorm. Riya sat in her armchair a little longer, she looked at the fire which faded slowly into embers.</p><p>            A knock was heard in the darkness. A small paper aeroplane was bouncing against the window on her left. She smiled to herself at the odd sight and opened it, unfolded the paper plane, and read:</p><p>            <em>Out in the corridor, now. </em></p><p>            Riya got up with her heart racing, she checked again that she was indeed alone in the common room and walked over to the back of the Fat Lady's portrait. As she pushed open the portrait, somebody grabbed her hand and pulled her forwards. She let out a short soft scream as the boy pulled her over and kissed her passionately.</p><p>            ‘Tom, what are you doing here?’ she asked disapprovingly.    </p><p>            ‘I wanted to see you, is that so bad?’ replied Tom.</p><p>            ‘No but if Filch catches you - ’</p><p>            ‘That old git is too slow by now, even if he does see me, he won’t be able to catch me,’ he smiled boldly.</p><p>            ‘You’re never like this, what’s wrong with you?’ said Riya, though she could not help but smile back.</p><p>            ‘I know, look at what you make of me.’ </p><p>            ‘Shhhh, I think someone’s coming. Go back. I’ll see you again tomorrow,’ she whispered.</p><p>            ‘Okay, okay, I might have some great news tomorrow!’</p><p>            ‘SHHHH!’ Riya silenced him again.</p><p>            Tom kissed her again and began to walk back. At that moment, however, a loud screech was heard from the corridor ahead. Peeves had appeared in front of Tom, blocking his way.</p><p>            ‘OOOOOOOH, what do we have here?’ squeaked the poltergeist in unmistakable excitement, ‘Biggy Head Boy and his Prefect luv-dove out and about past hours! Tut, tut, Peevsie must report you! Yes, yes, I must do what’s right, I - ’</p><p>            ‘Silencio!’ Tom and Riya called together.</p><p>            Peeves grabbed his throat as his voice died immediately. His face contorted in anger as he floated in place for a second and then rushed away. Tom smiled at Riya triumphantly as she began to giggle – CRASH! The loud sound, particles, and dust of shattered china filled the corridor. The poltergeist threw an ancient vase against the wall to Riya’s left.</p><p>            ‘PEEVES!!!!’ the voice of Argus Filch, the old caretaker, thundered below them. ‘I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS!!!’</p><p>            ‘Go! Now!’ yelled Riya through tears of laughter. ‘Gingerroot,’ she called at the portrait of the Fat Lady who looked at her disapprovingly before opening the passage. Riya climbed back into the silent common room laughing quietly. She walked over to the door of the girl’s dorm and opened it. As she laid back in her four-poster bed moments later, she smiled to herself again and hugged her pillow, nobody had ever made her feel that way before.</p><p>*</p><p>Riya and Molly woke up at 8:00 the next morning. They made their way to the Great Hall shortly after for breakfast. Riya looked for Tom across the hall at the Hufflepuff table, but he was nowhere to be seen. She figured he had already finished his breakfast by the time they got there. Their mood was elated as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower to take their jackets, bags, and permission slips for the day.</p><p>            ‘Where do you wanna go first?’ asked Molly.</p><p>            ‘Probably the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes outlet, I feel a tad rebellious at the moment,’ replied Riya.</p><p>            Molly snorted loudly. ‘My stupid uncles’ shop branch?’</p><p>            ‘You mean your stupid RICH uncles’ shop branch.’</p><p>             ‘Yeah well, they’re still stupid. But their stuff pisses off my dad a lot, so I guess they have some use,’ chuckled Molly. ‘Speaking of rebellious moods, you wouldn’t happen to know what caused Peeves to smash a vase right outside the entrance to our common room would you?’ she asked with an inquisitive look at her friend.</p><p>            Riya grinned at her friend. ‘Tom came to visit last night.’</p><p>            ‘Riya! You snuck out?! We’re Prefects! Why are you letting him do this to you?’ demanded Molly.</p><p>            ‘Oh shut it, it’s all in good fun, and it’s not like we got caught!’</p><p>            ‘Whatever. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. Blinded by boys, that’s what you are.’</p><p>            ‘Are you gonna report me?’ asked Riya cheekily.</p><p>            ‘Don’t make m – ’ started Molly with an equally cheeky smile, but before she could finish, Molly walked into someone as they turned the corner into one of the corridors.</p><p>            ‘Oh, sorry,’ apologised Molly.</p><p>            ‘No worries, you’re fine,’ said the young man. He was broad-shouldered and auburn-haired, he had dark green eyes, and a closely trimmed beard. The man smiled at them politely and walked off. He was observing the different portraits and windows of the castle silently as he progressed through the corridor ahead.</p><p>            ‘Er… did he look like a Hogwarts student to you?’ asked Riya suspiciously as they watched the man disappear around a corner.</p><p>            ‘He’s kind of cute though,’ said Molly.</p><p>            ‘Now who’s “blinded by boys”?’ asked Riya in disbelief.</p><p>            ‘Oh relax, I’m sure McGonagall wouldn’t let anyone wander around here without her permission. Come on, we need to get going now if we want to beat the queue.’</p><p>            The girls continued walking upstairs through the castle to Gryffindor Tower. A few moments later they were queueing up with their bags over their shoulders as they stood in line to get checked by Filch.</p><p>            ‘Can you see Tom anywhere?’ asked Riya as she looked around them through the crowd.</p><p>            ‘He told you he had stuff to do, didn’t he? He’s probably still in his dorm,’ said Molly.</p><p>            ‘I guess…’ said Riya.</p><p>            After a long wait at the line for inspection, the girls were finally on their way to Hogsmeade village. The skies were cloudy and bleak and the cold wind that swept the grounds yesterday remained. Molly and Riya tightened their jackets as they marched towards the main street of the village. The passed the rest of their morning walking around the different shops in the village. Riya left Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes’ Hogsmeade branch with a Weather in a Bottle and a Jinx-Off kit that she fancied. They then decided to go over to Honeydukes and stock up on some sweets for their heavy schoolwork and essays which were sure to come.</p><p>            ‘You know what,’ said Molly as they left the sweet shop, ‘I feel like a change in hairstyle,’ she motioned over to the hairdressing salon across the street. ‘Wanna join?’</p><p>            ‘Sure,’ said Riya.</p><p>            Soon after Riya sat at a corner of the barbershop and read the latest edition of <em>Witch Weekly</em>. Best wizarding kitchens? Hunkiest wizard of the month? Best magical flower arrangements? How can anyone read this boring pile of dragon dung? Is that seriously what these people expect “all witches” to like? More like all witches over forty… thought Riya as she looked up at her friend whose hair was being trimmed short by a pair of floating scissors. Half an hour later both girls walked out of the hairdresser, Riya with a weird smile on her face and Molly with a bob cut and a streak of purple in her hair.</p><p>            ‘What?’ asked Molly.</p><p>            ‘Nothing,’ said Riya a little too quickly.</p><p>            ‘You keep looking at me and smiling like that,’ persisted Molly.</p><p>            ‘It’s nothing really…’ said Riya now trying not to laugh. ‘You just look so “special” and “interesting” now that you have a purple streak in your hair,’ she said as she could not help herself anymore and began to giggle uncontrollably.</p><p>            ‘Shut up!’ said Molly as she smacked her friend on the shoulder.</p><p>            Riya kept bursting into giggles as they walked around a little longer looking at the different displays in the shop windows.</p><p>            ‘It’s almost one, I think we should go over to the Three Broomsticks now,’ said Molly.</p><p>            As they walked back towards the inn, Riya spotted Professor Longbottom walking toward them with an old man. The girls waved politely at their friendly Head of House and he smiled back at them. As they passed them by, Riya heard the old man mutter ‘dear lord…’ with a glance at Molly’s hair. This caused another fit of giggles which lasted until they arrived at the Three Broomsticks Inn.</p><p>            They sat down at one of the tables furthest from the entrance. It was extremely crowded in there. The inn was overflowing with students, teachers, local, and non-local patrons to the point where it was hard to spot an empty bit of floor. Barnaby, the youngest son of the landlady Madam Rosmerta, was running around taking orders and serving the many patrons of the pub.</p><p>            ‘Do you reckon we should wait for Tom?’ asked Riya.</p><p>            ‘Nope, I’m starving! He can order whatever he likes when he gets here, we’ll wait for him to finish,’ replied Molly.</p><p>            When Barnaby had arrived at their table, he sat down for a breather next to Molly. The young man looked exhausted. He took their orders: ‘Two Butterbeers, Fish and Chips, and the vegetarian Bangers and Mash, please!’ and then scurried off into the crowd. A few minutes later two glasses of butterbeer floated onto their table.</p><p>            ‘What do you think’s taking him this long?’ asked Riya as she kept glancing over her shoulder.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know, it’s like quarter past one, now right?’ said Molly as she glanced at her wristwatch.</p><p>            Riya was getting worried; Tom had never been late to meet her before and she had not seen him since last night. What was he doing?</p><p>            ‘I’m sure he’s fine, Ri, he’s just a bit late that’s all,’ reassured Molly. By then their dishes appeared at their table. They began to tuck in, Riya stopping every once in a while, to look again over her shoulder.</p><p>            About 40 minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Tom. Both girls had finished their lunch by now and even Molly started shooting looks at the door.</p><p>            ‘If he doesn’t come soon, we’re gonna have to either order more drinks or get out…’ said Molly nervously. ‘We can’t keep sitting here taking space.’</p><p>            ‘I know… it’s just… why is he not here yet?’ replied Riya.</p><p>            ‘Anything else for you dears?’ asked Madam Rosmerta, rather pointedly, after a few more minutes had passed. She noticed the girls were done with their food and drinks and came over to check on them.</p><p>            ‘No, thank you, we’ll go pay at the bar,’ said Riya sadly.</p><p>            As they left the inn, Riya’s mind was racing. Something must be wrong, he would never skip on me like that, she thought.</p><p>            ‘Wait, Ri, look! There!’ called Molly.</p><p>            Riya turned her head and saw the unmistakable figure of Tom walking fast and with determination in the completely opposite direction to the Three Broomsticks, toward the entrance to Hogsmeade.</p><p>            ‘Tom? Hey, Tom! TOM!’ Riya called after him.</p><p>            The boy turned around and looked at her in confusion. ‘What? Who - ’</p><p>            ‘Tom we were waiting for you at the Three Broomsticks forever, what happened?’ asked Riya.</p><p>            ‘Oh. Yeah, sorry I er… forgot,’ said Tom.</p><p>            ‘Forgot? What - ’ started Molly.</p><p>            ‘Look er… I have to go okay, this is important. I’ll see you later,’ he cut her off.</p><p>            ‘Okay…?’ said Riya in confusion. She leaned over for a quick peck, but Tom had already started walking back toward the castle.</p><p>            ‘I don’t like this…’ whispered Molly.</p><p>            ‘It’s really weird, what the hell…’ started Riya.</p><p>            ‘Let’s follow him,’ said Molly.</p><p>            ‘What?! But Mols if he doesn’t want us to know - ’</p><p>            ‘Oh for Merlin’s sake, Ri! Don’t you think this is a little too suspicious?!’ replied Molly with a groan. ‘We’ll keep our distance. He’s not gonna know we’re tailing him. Bloody hell, he’s supposedly SO in love with you, yet he forgot you were supposed to meet up? What sort of nonsense - ’</p><p>            ‘Okay fine let’s go,’ said Riya.</p><p>            They followed Tom on his way back to Hogwarts, making sure to keep themselves at a good distance. The girls had to dive behind a tree or two as Tom kept looking behind his back and down the path to make sure he was not followed. Something about him was very odd. He did not seem to walk or carry himself the right way. He also did not appear to know who Riya even was when she talked to him earlier. Was he Confunded? Or worse?</p><p>            Tom had reached the gates to the castle grounds. Riya and Molly had to dive back behind a tree again to avoid being seen. Once Filch had finished prodding and poking him with his Secrecy Sensor, he carried on walking at his fastest pace towards the castle itself. Riya and Molly ran up to the gates to catch up with him. They stopped for Filch’s scanning while looking impatiently at Tom’s ever distancing figure.</p><p>            ‘Well, well, what do we have here eh? Thought you might sneak that in eh? Thought I wouldn’t catch ya?!’ said Filch to Riya in a triumphant tone. He was holding her newly purchased Weather in a Bottle. She had forgotten to hide it in the secrecy-detector-proof compartment of her bag.</p><p>            ‘What? Oh, yeah whatever, you can have it,’ said Riya dismissively.</p><p>            ‘Not so fast Missy!’</p><p>            ‘Look Mr Filch we have to go, please, you can have this just let us go - ’ began Riya.</p><p>            ‘Albus?!’ called Molly suddenly.</p><p>            ‘What?’ said Filch and Riya in unison.</p><p>            ‘OI! Albus! What the hell do you think you’re doing exactly?!’ yelled Molly as she ran towards what looked like two boys in their first year who were sneaking out of the Forbidden Forest ahead of them. One of the boys was taller and blond, the other was black-haired and scrawny, they were both frozen in fear.</p><p>            Riya hesitated for a second, then ran after Molly with Filch at her tail. When she finally reached the boys, Molly was holding them both by the necks of their robes.</p><p>            ‘What in the name of Merlin’s cross-eyed face were you doing in there??’ she asked the black-haired boy.</p><p>            ‘Nothing,’ said the boy, though he was clearly panicky for having been caught. ‘We were just exploring!’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, right, exploring my a - ’ began Molly.</p><p>            ‘I’ll handle this!’ called Filch with an unmistakable grimace. ‘Give them here girl, I’ll do them a good - ’</p><p>            ‘We are Prefects, Mr Filch, we can handle this, thank you,’ said Riya with all the confidence she could muster.</p><p>            ‘I will take them both to their Head of House now,’ said Molly.</p><p>            ‘Now look here - ’</p><p>            ‘Your instructions from Professor McGonagall are to stand at the gates and check everyone who’s coming back from Hogsmeade for contraband, are they not?’ asked Molly.</p><p>            Filch nodded his head dumbly at her in disappointment.</p><p>            ‘We’ll take the boys to Professor McGarth, and you’ll watch the gates,’           she concluded.</p><p>            Riya looked back in the direction of the castle. Tom was nowhere to be seen by now.</p><p>            They walked the boys all the way back into the Entrance Hall where Molly stopped and let go of their robes. ‘I don’t know what you were doing over there, Al. Consider yourself lucky that you’re my cousin and I’m feeling lenient today. If I see you anywhere near that forest again your parents are going to hear about it. Yours too Mr Malfoy, I’m assuming? I bet your dad wouldn’t be too happy to hear that you’re misbehaving. And trust me, I’m not gonna be this nice next time, you hear me?’</p><p>            ‘Yes…’ said the boys.</p><p>            ‘Good. Go to your common room now.’</p><p>            As the boys scurried off, Riya began scanning the Great Hall ahead for signs of Tom.</p><p>            ‘Just as I was thinking we weren’t gonna have another James on our hands…’ said Molly, looking at the boys’ backs as they disappeared behind the doorway to the dungeons.</p><p>            ‘Tom’s not in there, I can’t see him,’ said Riya.</p><p>            ‘What? Oh. He could’ve gone anywhere by now…’ said Molly as she looked all around them. ‘We’ll look for him at dinner today. Common Ri, Let’s just go relax in the common room.’</p><p>*</p><p>The rest of the day had passed with no other sign of Tom. Riya and Molly decided to check for him again the following morning during breakfast.</p><p>            Riya scanned the Hufflepuff table for Tom’s tall figure but could not spot him. She was getting extremely worried again now. Right as the girls had decided to leave the Great Hall and maybe go over to the Hufflepuff common room entrance, Tom had walked into the hall and sat down at a lonely corner of the table. He looked tired, sad, and, maybe, angry?</p><p>            ‘Hey Tom, what’s up?’ asked Riya as she sat next to him.</p><p>            ‘What do you mean “what’s up”?’ he responded in now unmistakable anger.</p><p>            ‘What - ’ began Riya.</p><p>            ‘Why are you even here Riya? Why don’t you go hang out with Jacob Nowak and his gang of goons?’ blurted Tom.</p><p>            ‘What… what are you talking about? Is something wrong?’</p><p>            ‘Oh real funny, real clever, Riya. You know what, I’m not even hungry,’ Tom yelled as he got up from his seat. ‘Coming here, after breaking up with me in the middle of Hogsmeade, saying I don’t spend enough time with you, don’t give you enough attention. NOW you’re pretending to care… real classy!’</p><p>            ‘What…? Tom, I… I never broke up with you - ’ started Riya in bewilderment.</p><p>            ‘Now we’re playing mind games, are we? “Never broke up with me”. Right. Sure. Can’t even say you regret breaking up, just straight up denying it eh? You know what Riya, save it. You’re right, I don’t spend time with you because my job prospects ARE more important to me!’ And with that, Tom walked off and disappeared past the doors to the Entrance Hall.</p><p>            Riya looked at Molly. She seemed just as confused as she was, though not as hurt. She then turned to see the entirety of the Hufflepuff table, and most of the other ones, stare at her with loathing looks.</p><p>            ‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Molly. She grabbed Riya’s arm and walked her out of the hall.</p><p>            ‘What the hell was that about?!!’ cried Riya as tears began to flow down her face.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know, but this is really suspicious,’ whispered Molly. ‘We know for a fact that you didn’t break up with him yesterday, AND we know that he was being very odd too. You know what I think? I think someone’s interfered with his memory. He may have even been Imperiused and then had his memory modified. We need to go to Professor McGonagall. Now.’</p><p>            She had grabbed Riya’s arm again and pulled her up the marble staircase. Riya was weeping uncontrollably. She did not understand what was going on and was in no position to resist her friend’s grip. Molly, however, seemed in her element. She looked more determined than ever to get to the bottom of things and expose whoever did this to Tom.</p><p>            ‘It might be connected to this whole “Lost Child” business. We don’t know,’ continued Molly as they made their way through the castle to the Headmistress’ Office. ‘Whoever’s doing this is smart though. They knew we were in Hogsmeade yesterday with Tom and that he was seen walking off quickly after we talked to him. This would provide eyewitness accounts from all the other students. And he didn’t seem to be acting suspiciously to anyone but us yesterday, right? He seemed himself today. Merlin’s pants! This is practically our word against Tom’s and he’s Imperiused or bewitched or whatever. But we have to try and explain it to Professor McGonagall, preferably before any other word gets to her.’</p><p>            Molly was talking almost as fast as she was walking and Riya could barely keep up with her words, let alone with her pace. She did not care about plots or Lost Children or bewitchments. All she cared about was that Tom now hated her guts. And she had not even done anything wrong.</p><p>            They soon turned the corner to the Gargoyle Corridor. Right at the front of the Stairwell Gargoyle, which concealed the stairs to the Headmistress’ Office, they spotted the tall, handsome, black-haired figure of their Transfiguration teacher, Professor Montgomery.</p><p>            ‘Morning, Miss Weasley, Miss Singh,’ he greeted them.</p><p>            ‘Professor Montgomery, we need to speak with Professor McGonagall, it’s important - ’ began Molly.</p><p>            ‘If you’re referring to Mr Delamont’s suspicious behaviour yesterday, rest assured I have already discussed it with the Headmistress.’</p><p>            ‘Really? How - ’</p><p>            ‘I spotted him trying to sneak into my office yesterday, around two o’clock. When apprehended and questioned he seemed to be under the influence of some mind-altering substance. I quickly took him to Professor McGarth and we seemed to have rid him of its effects - ’</p><p>            ‘But you didn’t!’ called Molly. ‘He still thinks Riya broke up with him when she definitely did not!’</p><p>            ‘Perhaps. It may take some time for Mr Delamont to regain his memory and disposition in full. It may have been tarnished forever though. He is quite fine now, however,’ he added at the mortified look on Riya’s face.</p><p>            ‘But… but… Why…? How…?’ began Riya though her tearing eyes.</p><p>            ‘I suggest you try and reason with him. Perhaps make him understand that you did not mean to say the things he believes you may have said,’ reassured the teacher. ‘Until we figure out the perpetrator’s identity, however, I would ask you kindly to refrain from sharing any information about this with any of your peers. You didn’t tell anyone about this yet, right?’ he added in a hushed tone.</p><p>            ‘No,’ said the girls.</p><p>            ‘Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on a few matters.’</p><p>            ‘Professor if we could just talk to Professor McGonagall quickly - ’ started Molly.</p><p>            ‘The Headmistress is well aware of the situation, Miss Weasley. Concerning her with the troubles of student-student relations is inadvisable at the moment. I suggest you go make Miss Singh a cup of tea, she seems to be in a dreadful state.’</p><p>            Molly seemed to be looking for a better argument, when she could not think of anything else, however, she bid Professor Montgomery farewell and led Riya by her hand back to the Gryffindor common room.</p><p>            Riya’s mood did not improve at all in the following week. The fact that she was now the target of dirty looks and rude mutterings, curtesy of the Hufflepuffs, did not help. Within the span of less than a week the entire school had seemed to take Tom’s side. Tom did his part in adding to her misery by refusing to acknowledge her existence at all whenever they crossed paths. Riya, owing to Professor Montgomery’s orders, could not even give her true version of events to anyone but Molly. All she could say to anybody who asked was that Tom had gotten the wrong impression and that she did not mean to “dump him”. A flood of rumours had spread through the student body, however, and Riya had even heard several gossiping fifth-year girls claim they had witnessed the shouting match between her and Tom that day.</p><p>            The month of October had appeared to be passing painfully slow. Riya had not once had a more miserable time at Hogwarts. She was never the most popular girl, but she was certainly not bullied or ridiculed either. But now she was the “mean hag” that had “dared breaking the heart of the most popular boy in school”. Leanne Smith, Tom’s ex-girlfriend, had already claimed, loudly and within hearing distance, that she had been ‘comforting poor Tom,’ and that ‘he was regretting ever leaving her for that awful sixth-year snake.’</p><p>            Molly did her best to try and cheer up her friend, cracking jokes and trying to get her to focus on theorising on what could be happening, but nothing had worked. She had seemed to get frustrated with current events as well. Anytime Molly had tried going to Professor McGonagall or Professor Longbottom with her input or issues, Professor Montgomery was there, stopping her and reassuring that investigations were being conducted and that she need not be worried. He appeared to be keeping a close eye on them ever since they met him at the Gargoyle Corridor.</p><p>            Riya appreciated her old friend’s comforting words and assistance, nonetheless. The only issue was that now Molly had to keep going off to Quidditch practice three times a week. James Potter, the newly picked Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and Molly’s cousin, had needed plenty of training before their first match against Slytherin on the first Saturday of November. Whenever Molly was gone, Riya had faced a lonely, miserable time sitting by herself at one of the remote corners of the castle.</p><p>            Riya had started her sixth year with a boy who loved and respected her, a friend who was always by her side, and a new status as one of the more popular students at Hogwarts. These days, she was facing the constant inquiries of the Gryffindors and the open hostility and ridicule of the rest of the school student body. Molly was rarely around, and Tom had hated her intensely. Though she had been excited for this year at first, she was now wishing it would end… and fast.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. A Hallow's Eve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hallowe’en had arrived seemingly fast that year. Harry was not sure if it was because of the recent chaotic events in his life or due to his ever-increasing age. The years did seem to fly by ever faster as Harry got older.</p><p>            The investigation, however, had reached a dead end. Reports still came from Malmire but they were more often than not relatively dull and inconsequential. The murder inquiry had run out of leads as well. Dean and his task force could not find anyone who was able to tell them about Laura Madley’s recent life. Anyone who agreed to come forward would tell them the same story: ‘She was a loner, lived off a dwindling inheritance, and was a bit cuckoo.’ Her peers from her time at Hogwarts, however, told a different story. They had described her as ‘pretty normal but quite nosey.’ Harry’s most recent hypothesis was that she must have stumbled upon the Child’s true identity shortly after leaving Hogwarts and that her mind was altered by them at some point. That would mean that her killer had tried to pry her true memories out of her damaged mind and, in the process, caused her death.</p><p>            Yet, even though Harry’s enthusiasm for the case had not died down, the general public, along with most of his Aurors, had seemed to have grown weary of it. There were no new developments and no new crimes or strange incidents, after-all, and it looked as though many had assumed that it was indeed some lone killer who tried to cause a panic. Harry’s frustration with the apathy that had surrounded him these days kept increasing. He knew there had to be more to it.</p><p>            ‘You’re not going to obsess over this case again tonight, are you?’ asked Ginny as she noticed Harry’s vague gaze. ‘I can recognise this look on your face…’</p><p>            ‘What? No, Ginny, I’m just thinking,’ he replied indignantly.</p><p>            ‘Yeah. Thinking about the Madley murder again,’ she shot back.</p><p>            ‘Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m under a lot of pressure to solve this one. I mean, there are constant progress reports to fill out for it every week and the Daily Prophet’s up my - ’</p><p>            ‘Nobody’s pressuring you anymore, though. Even the papers have left it alone already. Hermione’s really concerned too. She said you almost exclusively talk about this case now. Everyone keeps avoiding mentioning it to you in case you go on another rant. Can’t you relax a little?’ requested Ginny in a pleading tone. But before Harry could retaliate again, she continued as she fixed Harry’s shirt.  ‘Enough now. Let’s just try to have a good time tonight okay?’   </p><p>            They were both going over to Ron and Hermione’s house for their, now traditional, Hallowe’en party. These gatherings had started initially as small events, only dedicated for close friends, family, and the former members of Dumbledore’s Army. However, as Ron’s considerable wealth and success grew bigger, and Hermione’s network as a career politician became wider, their Hallowe’en events became increasingly more prestigious. Harry, who used to like coming over for Hallowe’en, now could not help but feel a bit annoyed with the tradition, as it meant a whole evening of elbow-rubbing with some of the snobbiest, richest, and most pompous people in the magical world.</p><p>            ‘Can you zip my dress please?’ asked Ginny as she turned around.</p><p>            Harry closed it and looked at his watch. ‘We need to go soon, it’s almost six-thirty,’ he told his wife.</p><p>            ‘Do you reckon we should Disapparate from the hallway?’ she asked.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, I suppose that would be easier. Their driveway, right?’</p><p>            ‘That’s what my brother said.’</p><p>            Harry waited for Ginny to gather her purse from their closet before descending down the stairs to Lily’s room. He knocked on the door before letting himself in.</p><p>            ‘Okay Lil, Mum and I are leaving now. If you need anything just call Kreacher. Don’t open the door for anybody and send him to us immediately if there’s any trouble. Dinner will be ready soon and we’ll be back in a few hours. Alright?’ he asked his daughter.</p><p>            ‘Alright. Goodnight Daddy.’</p><p>            ‘Goodnight Lil.’</p><p>            He kissed Lily’s forehead and walked back out. Ginny and Harry proceeded to go downstairs to the long hallway. They stopped right at the door as Ginny gave him a look of reassurance. Harry concentrated on Ron and Hermione’s home by Epping Forest and lifted his wand. Without a word, they both turned around in their spots and vanished from Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.</p><p>            Harry and Ginny had reappeared at the end of a long driveway. There were thick woods on either side of it all the way to the house at the end. The house ahead of them was handsome, big, and roomy. Golden light emanated out of the many windows and the muffled sounds of conversation were heard from the wide entrance. Harry took Ginny by her hand and walked over to the palatial front of the house.</p><p>            ‘Harry, m’boy!’ called a familiar voice to their right. A gigantic-bellied old man in dark emerald green robes stepped forward and shook Harry’s hand vigorously.</p><p>            ‘Oh, hi Professor Slughorn,’ greeted him Harry with as much enthusiasm as he could force.</p><p>            ‘Call me Horace, dear boy, call me Horace! I am no longer a professor and we are rather far from Hogwarts!’ chuckled the old man.</p><p>            ‘Right. How are you doing Horace?’</p><p>            ‘Splendid m’boy, splendid. Retirement agrees with me indeed,’ said Horace. ‘Why you look wonderful. And dear Ginevra, as marvellous as ever!’</p><p>            ‘You too Horace, you seem lively,’ said Ginny.</p><p>            ‘And I hear you two have been awfully busy.  Heading an entire department at the Ministry and working as the sports section editor for the Daily Prophet. And all even without my help, well I say!’ bellowed Horace as his big belly puffed up. </p><p>            ‘Hi Horace, Harry, Ginny,’ said Hermione’s voice. She and Ron were standing at the entrance greeting their guests. Hermione’s hair was smooth, long, and straight, it fell back onto her gleaming red dress. Ron was wearing a magnificent set of jet-black robes. Harry could not help but be reminded of the Yule Ball, back in their Hogwarts days, when Ron wore his old set of hideous second-hand robes and Hermione had been red with anger at him for his jealousy. He smiled as he observed how impressive they both looked now, how well adjusted.</p><p>            They greeted Harry and Ginny with warm hugs and shook Slughorn’s chubby hand.</p><p>            ‘You can go settle at the pavilion. Just through the sitting room and past the rose garden, Horace,’ said Hermione as she gestured toward the entrance. Due to the rather large number of people that now attended these events, Ron and Hermione had taken to hosting their parties outside at a dedicated pavilion rather than inside their home.</p><p>            ‘We’ll see you in a bit,’ added Ron with a wink.</p><p>            Harry, Ginny, and Slughorn walked through the impressive entrance hall and left into the big, yet cosy, sitting room. Harry had been familiar with it from many Christmas Evenings and friendly visits. The room was both Ron and Hermione’s personalities manifest. It had tall shelves which overflowed with hundreds upon hundreds of books. The large fireplace cast its golden light onto a handsome oak bar and a magnificent, marbled Wizard's Chess table.</p><p>            They walked through the sitting room and into the softly lit rose garden. The high-pitched buzzing noise of a few dozen fairies filled the air. They were playing and zooming around the many jack-o'-lanterns which floated eerily among the roses. Soft, spooky music was faintly heard from the pavilion ahead. The large tent had been filled by hovering saucers which contained what Harry recognised as Hermione’s famous bluebell fire. The flames protected the crowd from the late-October cold as well as casting a ghostly blue light. The crowd was sorted in round dining tables which were scattered around the near end of the pavilion. A band of enchanted skeletons was playing at the far end.</p><p>            ‘Merlin’s hat! They really do know how to get in the spirit of things!’ observed Horace. Harry smiled at him. ‘I must say, it is far more crowded than last year’s party,’ continued the old man.</p><p>            ‘I suppose the list grew a bit since Hermione became Minister,’ said Ginny wisely.</p><p>            ‘Great…’ replied Harry somewhat bitterly.</p><p>            ‘Oh, hello Melinda! How have you been my dear?!’ called Slughorn as he suddenly disappeared into the crowd. </p><p>            Harry had barely noticed his disappearance, when a small crowd of pompous-looking Ministry officials had swept upon him. As he shook their hands and exchanged painfully dull pleasantries, Harry had managed to mumble  ‘find someone from the DA please,’ to his wife between his teeth.</p><p>            ‘Hey Luna! Rolf! Over here!’ called Ginny as she pulled and rescued Harry from the grasps of the boring bunch.</p><p>            Luna, their old friend, was a witch with waist-length, straggly, dirty blonde hair, and protuberant silvery eyes which made her look dreamily distracted. Her husband, Rolf Scamander, was a tall, scrawny, brown-eyed wizard with a slightly awkward look about him. They both got up from their table to greet Harry and Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Oh, hi Harry, Ginny,’ said Luna as she and her husband hugged them. ‘Come sit with us.’</p><p>            ‘How have you been Luna?’ asked Ginny as they both sat down at the table.</p><p>            ‘Pretty great, the Quibbler is doing better than ever now. I took Rolf’s advice and started printing more articles about “conventional” creatures,’ she exclaimed with a look at her husband. Rolf went slightly red and smiled at Harry swiftly. He was never very talkative.</p><p>            ‘Are you still writing that children’s book?’ continued Ginny.</p><p>            ‘The Friendly Crumple-Horned Snorkack! Yes, I do! I think it ought to bring more awareness to these incredibly rare creatures,’ replied Luna enthusiastically.</p><p>            ‘I can’t wait to read it to Lily,’ said Ginny with a half-genuine, half-amused smile.</p><p>            ‘You look in pain Harry,’ stated Luna. She had never lost her knack of making others uncomfortable by reading their moods publicly and accurately.</p><p>            ‘Bit of a stomach-ache,’ lied Harry.</p><p>            ‘You should drink some Gulping Plimpy oil! It always helps me!’</p><p>            By the time Harry had formed a reply, a massive hand had patted him on the shoulder which made his chair creak a little.</p><p>            ‘’Er ye are Harry! Happy Hallowe’en!’ said Hagrid as he moved the two chairs to Harry’s right and positioned his own, large, enforced one in their place. ‘Hermione suggested I should probably ‘ave me own seat, after las’ year’s mess. She also said ter save ‘er and Ron two seats with us,’ said the giant gamekeeper as he sat down.</p><p>            ‘How are you Hagrid?’ asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Fine dear, fine. Albus seems ter ‘ave settled down nicely overall. Came ter visit a couple o’ times with his little friend, tha’ Scorpius boy, nice kid, doesn’ take after his dad much, only by looks.’</p><p>            ‘And how’s Neville doing?’ asked Harry in a veiled attempt at getting some information. Ginny gave him a warning, unapproving look. He had never told Hagrid about Neville’s part in the investigation. Mainly because of Hagrid’s unfortunate tendency to accidentally spill the beans on secret plans.</p><p>            ‘He’s doin’ fine. Very proud o’ his little godson. Said he couldn’ come tonight because he had to keep watch on some growing Mandrakes. Oh, and ya didn’ hear this from me, but I hear a rumour tha’ he and Hannah are plannin’ on havin’ a child o’ their own.’</p><p>            ‘Really? That’s wonderful!’ said Ginny.</p><p>            ‘About time!’ exclaimed Harry.</p><p>            A few minutes had passed by with friendly conversation and some warm memories from Harry’s time at Hogwarts. By then the tables had mostly been filled by the many guests that had arrived. The Weasley family; Molly, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, George, Angelina, Percy, and Audrey, had all waved at them affectionately as they sat down at a table nearby.</p><p>            ‘If I could have everyone’s attention please!’ called Ron’s magically enhanced voice from the front of the tent. Harry had barely noticed that the music had stopped playing. ‘Our brand-new Minister for Magic would like to say a few words before we all tuck in,’ he said as the crowd cheered loudly. Hagrid clapped his hands so vigorously, that the table quaked and made Harry’s glass of water spill over.</p><p>            ‘Thank you, Ron’ said Hermione as she kissed her husband and pointed her wand at her neck. ‘I don’t really have much to say tonight. I just wanted to thank you all for the amazing support that you’ve shown for our campaign. It’s been a long, tough road, and there’s still so much work to be done. I hope I can be a Minister that makes you all proud to be part of the British and Irish magical community!’ Everyone cheered and clapped again as she continued. ‘Now, if everyone could please tap their choice of food and drinks from the menus at their tables twice with their finger or wand.’</p><p>            Harry grabbed the menu ahead of his plate. He fancied the steak and mashed potatoes along with a glass of Firewhisky. He tapped his wand at his choices and, with a small pop, both items appeared in front of him. Soon similar sounds of pops and clanks of metal filled the pavilion all around them. Loud chatter had resumed by now.</p><p>            ‘Neat little trick huh?’ said Ron as he sat down at the table alongside Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Just like Hogwarts,’ answered Harry with a smile.</p><p>            ‘We even had house-elves cook this time. I’ve convinced Hermione’ he added with a cheeky smile. ‘We couldn’t possibly cook for so many people on our own, even with my mum’s help.’</p><p>            ‘And they are all very well, and FAIRLY, paid, right Ron?’ added Hermione pointedly.</p><p>            ‘O’ cour-th-e,’ mumbled Ron as he began shoving great portions of Curry into his mouth.</p><p>            Hermione looked at him with an exasperated, yet slightly amused, look. ‘How are you doing Harry?’ she asked in a careful tone, which slightly angered him.</p><p>            ‘I’m fine Hermione. And please, if you have any further concerns about my mental state, I would like you to talk to me about it rather than go gossiping – ’</p><p>            ‘Wow hey! Harry, relax mate,’ Ron stopped him before he could finish.</p><p>            ‘You’re right,’ exclaimed Hermione. ‘Harry I’m sorry I went behind your back, but you seem an awful lot like your former self lately. I… we, were worried that you might be obsessing over this case a little.’  </p><p>            ‘Someone died, Hermione,’ replied Harry.</p><p>            ‘Someone dies every week. Even when Mortedigne was causing all that mess in Europe, you weren’t this tense.’</p><p>            ‘It’s more personal now though, isn’t it Harry?’ joined Luna out of the blue. ‘He is obviously traumatized by everything that has happened and seeing the Dark Mark again couldn’t have been easy on him.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah… er… something like that,’ said Harry a little ashamedly. Luna had demonstrated again how she could be both highly intelligent and extremely blunt at times.</p><p>            ‘I’m sorry, Harry,’ apologised Hermione.</p><p>            ‘I’m sorry for getting angry,’ he responded.       </p><p>            ‘Now isn’ tha’ nice?’ asked Hagrid, who was halfway through his 10<sup>th</sup> glass of Dragon Barrel Brandy. ‘All good now w’ yer… er… now shake hands an’ be friends again.’</p><p>            ‘Hagrid we’re thirty-seven…’ said Harry with a suppressed chuckle.</p><p>            ‘And ya still behave like a righ’ little brats sometimes –’ *BURP* ‘– somebody needs ter teach ya ter – ’ *BURP*. The rest of Hagrid’s sentence was swallowed by their laughter. ‘’scuse me I must’ve drank a little fast,’ said Hagrid as he joined in laughing.</p><p>            Harry felt a little better sitting with his old friends again, laughing, and cracking jokes. He helped himself to some more Firewhiskey and pudding.</p><p>            When they had all finished eating, Ron got up from his chair to look around and see if everyone was done with their meals. He then looked at Hermione who nodded. Ron pointed his wand at his throat and said, ‘If everyone is done with their food now, we would like to proceed with tonight’s plan! Everybody please get up from your chairs and grab any drinks you’d like to keep. If anyone needs further refreshment, there is a bar over there,’ he pointed in the direction of one of the corners of the tent in which a fully stocked, massive bar had appeared. About ten house-elves walked behind it and began preparing glasses of different shapes and sizes. ‘Just tell one of the bartenders what you need, and they will get it for you. Now feel free to walk around and chat, explore the house a little, or hit the dance floor!’</p><p>            As everyone got up from their seats, Hermione waved her wand in a single motion. The large dining tables and chairs vanished, and in their stead appeared an array of black and gold cocktail tables which scattered around the pavilion. The skeleton band immediately began playing again, now at a much faster pace.</p><p>            ‘We better go mingle a bit,’ said Hermione as she grabbed Ron out of the way of George and Angelina, who ran towards the dance floor.</p><p>            ‘But…’ said Ron with a longing look at the bar. They had both disappeared before Harry could hear the rest of Ron’s sentence.</p><p>            ‘Wanna go for a stroll? I need to walk off this steak…’ muttered Harry to his wife.</p><p>            Ginny nodded her head and joined him. Hagrid was already half-way to the bar, where a particularly small and frightened-looking house elf clutched a massive cask and gave his co-worker a knowing glance.</p><p>            Harry and Ginny walked back into the cool night air of the rose garden. The fairies, still playing around the floating pumpkins, were casting an eerie glow over the various plants and shrubs of the garden.</p><p>            ‘”Better go mingle a bit”’ said Ginny with a snigger and a mocking tone.</p><p>            Harry laughed. ‘She has changed, hasn’t she? Used to despise the politician-y type, now look at her.’</p><p>            ‘Well, you know what they say these days, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become Cornelius Fudge.’</p><p>            Harry snorted again. Ginny always knew how to make him laugh. Here, in the dim light and fresh autumn air, he could remember how he felt when they kissed for the first time. How he loved her. Even now with all the bickering and arguing, all the stress of his job and his ever-growing pile of worries, there was one consistent, reliable, good, and pure thing: Ginny. Harry leaned over and kissed his wife.</p><p>            ‘Potter,’ said a voice behind them.</p><p>            ‘What? Ahem, oh, hey, hi Mr Smith,’ Harry let go of Ginny awkwardly fast.</p><p>            ‘Potter I need a word with you,’ said the old grey man. Josiah Smith was the head examiner for the Auror Office. He oversaw the training and examination of potential Aurors for the Ministry. He had a tough look about him, which was only amplified with age.</p><p>            ‘What is it?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            But before Smith could answer, a young man’s voice came from the rose garden. ‘Hey Harry, Ginny, Mr Smith,’ said Teddy Lupin. Had had just arrived at the party looking a bit dishevelled.</p><p>            ‘Hi Teddy, you’re a bit late, what happened?’ asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, I was training and lost track of time. There isn’t any food left by any chance, is there?’ he queried hopefully.</p><p>            ‘Go over to the kitchen. You might be able to snag something off,’ answered Harry.</p><p>            ‘Good kid, eh?’ Harry asked Smith as Teddy disappeared through the rose bushes.</p><p>            ‘Yeah…’ replied the old man. ‘Listen, about him Potter - ’</p><p>            ‘What about him?’ cut him off Harry, suddenly serious.</p><p>            ‘Well… I know he’s your godson, and don’t get me wrong, he’s a great lad, but he… er… he isn’t really Auror material.’</p><p>            ‘What?!’ said Harry, anger rising through him for the second time that evening, ‘What do you mean?’</p><p>            ‘I mean… He’s good at self-concealment, and maybe potions, but he loses his composure in stressful situations. He simply cannot clear his head and focus on a task under pressure. His spellwork’s everywhere, his charms backfire, he can’t even perform nonverbal hexes in a timely manner. He’s not the worst in his class, but he’s certainly not among the best.’</p><p>            ‘So, you’re not going to recommend Teddy for the office?’ asked Harry, dreading the answer.</p><p>            ‘I can’t in good conscience let Edward become an Auror. He’s got a good sharp mind, but none of the combat skills required from an Auror. I believe he might be better suited for the Department of Mysteries.’</p><p>            ‘Oh, you think so, do you?’ asked Harry venomously. He was truly angry now. After all the effort Teddy had been putting into this, all the time he had spent dreaming of becoming an Auror just like his mother, of being a brave warrior like his father. This sour old fart though he had the right to strip Teddy of everything he had ever dreamed of becoming, since he was in diapers.</p><p>            ‘Yes, I really do,’ replied Smith in a grave tone, not detecting the danger he was in.</p><p>            ‘REALLY?’ exclaimed Harry more forcefully. ‘Well, I don’t think so, Smith.’</p><p>            ‘What – ’</p><p>            ‘You know what I think, Smith? I think that you need to go and re-evaluate your concerns about Edward Lupin. I think that if you don’t want to end up in the bad books of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, you are going to acknowledge the fact that Teddy Lupin is very much qualified to be an Auror in our department – ’</p><p>            ‘Now wait here Potter, I don’t think that’s very – ’ started the old man.</p><p>            ‘I don’t CARE what you think, Smith. I should hope that, if YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU, you will not disappoint me,’ concluded Harry. He had stepped forward without realising it and was mere inches away from Smith’s scarred face.</p><p>            For a second, Harry thought the old man was reaching for his wand. He almost reached for his before Smith turned around and said ‘You are sending this kid to die, Potter. He can’t handle this job, no matter how much you want him to.’ And with one last disgusted look at Harry, the old man turned and walked back into the pavilion. </p><p>            Harry was breathing heavily. He was very much done with this evening. He glared at Smith’s figure without realising Ginny had been looking at him with worry in her eyes.</p><p>            ‘WHAT?’ he snapped at his wife when he finally realised what she was doing.</p><p>            ‘Harry… that was… bad, what you did. This was… corrupt… Was that wise, really?’ said Ginny in a  concerned tone that horrendously reminded Harry of Hermione.</p><p>            ‘I can’t just let this old bag of socks screw over Teddy’s future simply because he flunked a couple of exams Ginny!’</p><p>            ‘But he didn’t just flunk an exam, Harry. Smith said he really wasn’t doing well… I guess this is why he keeps training all the time… He’s really not performing well enough as an Auror, Harry – ’</p><p>            ‘Well, he’s got a great work ethic then! God knows we could use some hardworking Aurors in this department,’ replied Harry indignantly. </p><p>            ‘And what are you going to do then, when he can’t keep up with the rest of them?’</p><p>            ‘I’ll just have to train him myself, every day if I must, until he’s just as good as any of them.’</p><p>            ‘But – ’</p><p>            ‘Enough Ginny, I’m done with this conversation. I need another drink if you don’t mind.’ He led her back towards the bar.</p><p>            ‘Another Firewhiskey please,’ muttered Harry to one of the elves. Hagrid and Slughorn were sitting nearby, singing another one of their famously loud renditions of Odo The Hero. People were chatting and laughing all around. How could anyone enjoy this that much? Harry thought to himself.</p><p>            As he was waiting for his drink, Harry had noticed Bargok the goblin, the current Head of Gringotts, making an order of his own to an elf nearby. He was talking to a wizard Harry had not recognised.</p><p>            ‘We’ve invested a lot of money into your boss’s new business… I just hope it yields some proper revenue or I’ll be crucified for this at the bank,’ said the goblin.</p><p>            ‘You have nothing to worry about Bargok,’ replied the wizard. He spoke with an American accent. Harry had contemplated for a second before reminding himself that Rasmi had lived in America for several years prior. He must have had plenty of connections there. ‘Mr van Helmont is a very responsible man. He believes we have a winning product. And I think his credentials more than prove he is capable of delivering.’</p><p>            ‘I hope you’re right Mr Cooper,’ exclaimed the goblin.</p><p>            Harry got his glass of Firewhiskey and walked back out of the pavilion. This time he and Ginny went in the direction of the large fountain by the lawn. Guests were scattered in groups on the benches around the fountain. Harry recognised Seamus and Dean having a chat nearby. He waved at them politely as he passed them by and turned left toward the small vantage point at the end of the estate.</p><p>            ‘We still have to find a musical act for it you know,’ Harry had heard Hermione’s voice talk in the distance.</p><p>            ‘I can probably arrange for The Cult of Casper to play there, I know the lead singer,’ said Rasmi’s voice right from beside Hermione’s.</p><p>            ‘Wait, you know the lead singer of The Cult of Casper?’ Ginny asked Rasmi enthusiastically as they reached the vantage point and joined Ron, Hermione, Rasmi, and a pretty, young blonde witch Harry did not recognise. </p><p>            ‘Who are The Cult of Casper?’ inquired Harry.</p><p>            ‘It’s that new band I told you about,’ said Ginny, the one with the cat lead singer? Fluffy white one, He’s a Turkish Angora I think.’</p><p>            ‘Their lead singer is a cat?’ queried Harry.</p><p>            ‘Yes, a talking cat. They’re the most popular band around these days. I really like them. James likes them too. You really aren’t in the loop, are you?’</p><p>            ‘I thought the Weird Sisters were the best…’ replied Harry.</p><p>            Rasmi and the young witch next to him giggled. ‘They were… in the nineties. Now they’re kind of old, aren’t they?’ replied Rasmi.</p><p>            ‘You said you know Casper?’ continued Ginny with an embarrassed look at her husband.</p><p>            ‘Yeah…’ said Rasmi. ‘He’s my cousin.’</p><p>            ‘The… er… cat is your cousin?’</p><p>            ‘Yeah well, I mean, he’s not really a cat you see. He’s more of a failed Animagus…’  </p><p>            ‘What?!’ called Ginny in astonishment.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, he screwed a couple of things up when he tried becoming one. Got stuck as a talking, singing, fluffy, white cat. Not many people know that about Casper really.’</p><p>            ‘My god. That is some piece of gossip,’ said Ginny with a grin.</p><p>            Rasmi chuckled. ‘By the way, I haven’t introduced my date here yet. Harry, Ginny, this is Maeve Brown. She’s an old friend from Hogwarts. Maeve, this is Harry and Ginevra Potter.’</p><p>            ‘Nice to finally meet you,’ said the blonde witch as she shook their hands. ‘I guess you weren’t lying when you said you knew Harry Potter, Ras.’</p><p>            ‘I am shocked that you would think that! When have I ever told a lie MB?’ replied Rasmi sarcastically as Maeve laughed.</p><p>            ‘Brown?’ asked Harry. ‘Any relation to Lavender Brown?’</p><p>            ‘She was my aunt,’ answered Maeve. Lavender Brown had been one of the many casualties of the Battle of Hogwarts. She also happened to be Ron’s ex from their school days.</p><p>            ‘You must be Reed Brown’s daughter then, right? inquired Ron. ‘You gonna be a Healer like your dad?’</p><p>            ‘Yup. That’s the plan. I’m currently studying at St. Mungo’s School for Healers.’</p><p>            As the conversation around them dragged on, Rasmi leaned towards Harry and whispered, ‘How do you like them Nuntilluds I made you?’</p><p>            ‘They’re working great, thanks again,’ replied Harry.</p><p>            ‘You don’t seem to be finding what you’re looking for over at Malmire though?’ said the young man.</p><p>            ‘How did you – ’</p><p>            ‘You’re using my technology and my magic Harry Potter. There isn’t much one can hide from me when it’s written in my Nuntilluds,’ muttered Rasmi. ‘Don’t worry though,’ he added noticing Harry’s face, ‘Your secrets are safe with me. And, once my company takes off, I would have no problem sharing any and all of the information I am privy to with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.’</p><p>            ‘I suppose it could be useful,’ replied Harry. He was not sure he was happy with this new development. But then again, these Nuntilluds were very helpful…</p><p>            ‘You’ve got it all up and running then?’ he asked.</p><p>            ‘Yup,’ answered Rasmi. ‘I’ve already secured all the funding I need and I’m now renting a spot in Diagon Ally. We’re due to open next month.’</p><p>            ‘Brilliant.’</p><p>            ‘Couldn’t have done it without Ron here,’ he added. ‘He was a major contributor to the company.’</p><p>            ‘Aren’t they brilliant mate?’ Ron had joined the conversation. ‘Bound to make all that messy owl post obsolete. It’ll only be useful for packages, I reckon.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah…’ said Harry. His thoughts were now drifting back to the Madley case. If Rasmi’s technology could somehow help them find the killer…</p><p>            ‘Anything new on Madley’s killer?’ asked Rasmi suddenly. It was either an extreme coincidence, thought Harry, or another potential resemblance of Rasmi to Dumbledore: the ability to perform Legilimency with no apparent effort. Harry had not liked being read like that even when it was done by his old mentor.</p><p>            ‘Oh, don’t get him started,’ snorted Ginny.</p><p>            ‘No,’ said Harry with a sigh and a look at Ginny, ‘not really. It seems they vanished into obscurity again.’</p><p>            ‘I just hope they didn’t get to whoever this Child is yet…’ replied Rasmi as he took a sip of his drink.</p><p>            ‘Likewise…’ said Harry. ‘But I imagine we would have heard a whiff of it if it did happen.’</p><p>            Harry could not think of anything else to say about the case, or rather that he had dared say next to Ginny. They stood in silence and listened to Hermione and Maeve’s conversation about advanced healing charms. After several moments, Rasmi made a face at Harry.</p><p>            ‘I always find these types of events kinda dull, don’t you?’ he whispered at Harry.</p><p>            ‘Yes, very dull,’ replied Harry gratefully. He was glad to not be the only one who did not appear to enjoy himself that evening.</p><p>            ‘Say, did you get the chance to practice the Amarous charm a bit?’ asked Rasmi.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, a little,’ stated Harry, ‘can’t say that I’ve performed it as much as I’d want.’</p><p>            ‘Wanna have a little live drill now?’ queried the young man enthusiastically.</p><p>            ‘With the Killing Curse? Sure, why n – ’</p><p>            ‘Harry NO!’ called Hermione abruptly. She had heard the last bit of their conversation. ‘It’s too dangerous!’</p><p>            ‘Don’t worry, we’ll practice the Amarous charm on its own first,’ replied Rasmi in a calming tone.</p><p>            ‘It’s still too dangerous! I can’t be the only one who sees that. Ginny? Ron?’</p><p>            ‘I’m not a child anymore Hermione,’ said Harry, annoyed again at his friend’s patronizing words. ‘Besides, how am I supposed to be able to work it well in a real, dangerous situation if I hadn’t done it before in practice?’ He did not know what made him agree to the proposal. Perhaps it was the whiskey in his veins, or his boredom and frustration with this party in particular and his sedentary life in general. All he knew was that he had yearned to feel alive again just for a moment.</p><p>            ‘You realise you could die, right? This isn’t some game Harry,’ she retorted and then looked at her husband. ‘Say something, Ron.’</p><p>            ‘You could use our practice pitch for – ’</p><p>            ‘RON!’ yelled Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Are you okay with me doing this?’ Harry asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘You’re a grown man,’ she answered.</p><p>            ‘We’ll be extremely careful, don’t worry,’ Rasmi reassured Hermione.</p><p>            Harry had not missed Hermione’s disapproving looks from their school days. She was staring at him intensely now, perhaps wishing to guilt him out of this irresponsible performance. Yet, somehow, it had the opposite effect on Harry. It made him feel young again, reckless, just as he was in his teens. He suppressed a smile.</p><p>            Half an hour later they were all standing in the Quidditch practice pitch at the north-eastern end of the manor. Ron had it built so he could practice along with Rose and Hugo in their free time. Nearly all the guests of the party had come to watch the demonstration. They were completely surrounded by people. The Amarous charm was still very much a novelty in ordinary wizarding circles and not many had seen it in action. Harry and Rasmi stood facing each other. Teddy, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione, who had come to watch the exercise despite her disapproval of it, were all standing to Harry’s right.</p><p>            ‘Thank you all for coming to see our little show!’ called Rasmi at the crowd. He seemed to be enjoying himself. ‘Now first, as you may have guessed, Harry must practise the spell on its own to make sure he is ready and capable of performing it, not that I have any doubts that he can,’ he winked at Harry. ‘This is also done in order to prevent any unfortunate accidents since we are indeed dealing with an incredibly dangerous form of magic.’</p><p>            He then turned to Harry. ‘As you probably know Harry, this charm is somewhat based on the Patronus Charm. So, just as with the Patronus you focus on mustering the happiest memory you can think of, here you should try and focus on someone you love intensely and would be willing to sacrifice yourself for. Preferably this would be someone, or someone-s, who would feel the same way about you. I like to think of my family and some of my close friends. You must then empty your mind of anything else and only think of that person, or people, and your will to protect yourself for their sake. Then, place the tip of your wand in the palm of your hand like so,’ Rasmi demonstrated the move, ‘summon a corporeal form of this love and will to live, clench your hand, say the incantation: “Amarous”, and pull up your wand!’ As Rasmi pulled up his wand, a bright screen of light red and gold was conjured from between his hand palm and the wand’s tip.</p><p>            ‘Your turn now, Harry,’ said the young man as he relaxed his arm and let his shield vanish.   </p><p>            Harry focused his mind. It was not hard to choose who to think of; he concentrated hard on James, Albus, Lily, and Ginny. How he would give his own life in a heartbeat to save each and every one of them. And how devastated they would be if he did… He had to succeed in this. He pictured Ginny’s mournful face, Albus and James’ anger at him for having abandoned them, and Lily sobbing in misery. He would do anything to prevent that. Harry placed the tip of his wand in his hand and concentrated with all his might on it as little, gentle, golden flames began to appear around his arm. He clenched his fist, called ‘Amarous!’ and pulled back his wand. The same bright shied of light red and gold appeared between his wand’s end and his hand. The people around Harry began clapping loudly. He smiled at Ron, Teddy, Ginny, and Hermione as his bright screen faded.</p><p>            ‘VERY good!’ called Rasmi. ‘You should probably try it a couple more times just to get comfortable with it. If anybody else wants to try it for themselves, please feel welcome to do so. When you’re ready to test your mettle against the Killing Curse, Harry, let me know.’</p><p>            Harry nodded at him. Soon the pitch filled with calls of ‘Amarous’ and the light of numerous bright screens of colourful light. Hermione had conjured the charm perfectly every time, as expected, while Ginny had been almost as good. Ron and Teddy, however, had appeared to be having a little more trouble in mastering it. They repeated the incantation and motion a few times to no avail until, on his third try, Ron had managed to conjure a shield of his own.</p><p>            Harry practised a few more times, as Rasmi had suggested, to gain more confidence. When he felt that the charm had come to him almost as naturally as casting a Patronus, he signalled to the young man that he was ready. The crowd went silent as Rasmi took his position in front of Harry. Harry felt cold sweat building up on his skin. He was anxious.  He tried calming his nerves by breathing slowly and heavily. Rasmi himself appeared rather nervous too as he trembled a little when he stretched his wand arm and shook his head.</p><p>            ‘Ready then, Harry?’ asked Rasmi in a shaky tone.</p><p>            ‘Yes,’ he replied.</p><p>            ‘Alright, I will count to three and then cast it. I’ll be aiming it at the middle of your chest. Get in position.’</p><p>            Harry put his right foot back and little and place his wand in his hand again. He concentrated hard on Ginny and his children as he heard Rasmi’s voice call ‘One.’ He had to protect them, ‘Two.’ He had to keep living to do so, ‘THREE.’ I can do this…</p><p>            ‘Avada Kedavra!’</p><p>            ‘Amarous!’</p><p>            A loud *BANG* was heard as the stream of green light had reached its target. Harry’s shield had been shattered into oblivion as he felt himself being pushed back forcefully. He was unharmed.</p><p>            The crowd burst with applauds as Harry let out a massive sigh of relief. Even Hermione could not help herself but cheer as Ron and Teddy high-fived and Ginny called ‘That’s my husband, WOOOO!’ </p><p>            ‘Amazing Harry!’ shouted Rasmi. ‘Now, I want to give everyone just one little disclaimer!’ he said as he pointed his wand at his throat to be heard over the massive crowd. ‘This was obviously a drill performed by an extremely competent and professional fighter! I urge you not to try this trick at home as it is EXTREMELY dangerous to do so!’</p><p>            ‘Can’t make any promises,’ Harry heard George Weasley whisper to his brother Bill.</p><p>            ‘Also,’ Harry called, now pointing his own want at his neck, ‘I want to add something to Mr van Helmont’s comments. Everyone here must remember that in a real situation, where a dark wizard or witch is casting the Killing Curse at your direction, there would be no preparation or pleasantries exchanged. You would have no time to get ready like I did here. Therefore, I would only recommend using this charm in a case where escaping or dodging the Curse is impossible.’</p><p>            ‘Well said,’ concluded Rasmi.</p><p>            ‘Thank you. You know, you’re a decent teacher,’ said Harry. ‘You should maybe think of a career at Hogwarts.’</p><p>            ‘And miss all the fun I’m having out of it?’ chuckled Rasmi, ‘Maybe when I’m older.’ He winked.</p><p>            ‘Well, think about it,’ said Harry with a smile. ‘I think everyone can practice some more now, just for a little bit longer, to get the hang of it.’</p><p>            ‘Actually,’ interjected Rasmi, ‘I was wondering if you would do me the honours of a short duel? All clean, of course, no unforgivable curses here, just a polite duel between friends.’</p><p>            ‘You want me to duel you?’ asked Harry in surprise. The crowd around them went silent as Harry fixed his gaze at the man facing him. ‘Well, only if you’re up for having the floor wiped with you!’ he called with a smile. Harry heard Ginny sigh and mumble something that sounded a lot like ‘Boys…’</p><p>            ‘Great! I always wanted to see how I would do in a fair fight against the great Harry Potter,’ the youngster called back at him. ‘Though I wish we could’ve done this when you were younger. Now I’m not sure this will be as fun with your old-man reflexes!’</p><p>            Harry laughed at his taunts. This young man was certainly something.</p><p>            ‘It’s fine if you want to stay and watch,’ Harry addressed the crowd of guests again, ‘If everyone could just go over to the seats at the edges of the pitch, though, to make us some room? Ron,’ He turned to his friend, ‘would you mind officiating?’</p><p>            ‘Sure Harry,’ he replied.</p><p>            ‘There’s no need for seconds in this right?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘I should hope not!’ joked Rasmi.        </p><p>            ‘This should be interesting,’ Harry heard Bill Weasley whisper as he turned back and walked over to the spectator seating area.</p><p>            Harry and Rasmi stepped back further away from each other as Ron moved into position. He raised his wand and looked at the two men on either side of him.</p><p>            ‘Now bow,’ said Ron. Harry and Rasmi bowed and then got into accepted combative positions.</p><p>            ‘Alright, you start at the count of three,’ stated Ron. ‘One. Two. Three!’ he yelled as he sent red sparks flying through the air between them and stepped back.   </p><p>            ‘Expelliarmus!’ shouted Harry.</p><p>            ‘Really?’ Rasmi called back as he repelled the charm with ease. ‘Are you THAT predictable?’</p><p>            ‘Just wanted to see how alert you were,’ Harry joked back. He threw a nonverbal Full Body-Bind Curse next which was deflected just as easily. Harry paused for a second before sending an array of nonverbal spells at Erasmus who, in turn, blocked them all easily with no retaliation on his part.</p><p>            ‘Are you going to start fighting back?’ taunted Harry. ‘This duel we’re having feels pretty one-sided so far.’ He could hear the spectators laughing.</p><p>            ‘In a bit,’ said the young man. ‘I want to assess your technique first.’</p><p>            Harry made a face at him. He sent another array of hexes at the boy, this time much faster. Rasmi seemed to be observing him curiously as he blocked each and every one of them again and again.</p><p>            ‘You’re using Tokefi’s Sequential Assault Technique,’ said Rasmi with a chuckle, ‘typical Auror.’</p><p>            Harry was getting slightly annoyed by now. This buffoon was the one who had challenged him, after-all. When was he going to actually fight Harry instead of teasing him endlessly?</p><p>            As if he had heard Harry’s thoughts again, Rasmi called almost immediately, ‘Let’s make this more interesting now, shall we?’ he said with a quick smile before launching a fast counterattack in the form of an incredibly swift and colourful array of jinxes. His opponent had seemed to have tried to annoy Harry on purpose. He was almost caught off guard but had managed to block most of them and dodge the rest.</p><p>            ‘Finally!’ he called at his adversary.</p><p>            Rasmi launched a giant ball of green smoke at Harry as the latter dispersed it and retaliated with a silent Knockback Jinx. Rasmi apparated several feet to his immediate right to avoid Harry’s spell and proceeded to try and overwhelm Harry with a fresh flow of hexes and jinxes. The young man was moving so fast, Harry could barely keep up. He resorted to just defending himself now.</p><p>            I cannot keep this up forever, thought Harry as he concentrated on a spot directly behind Rasmi. The moment he had the chance for it, Harry turned around swiftly in his spot. With a small pop, he had disapparated from his original position to a few feet from Rasmi’s rear.</p><p>            ‘Expelliarmus!’ called Harry, as Rasmi turned around. This time Harry’s charm was much closer to hitting home.</p><p>            Rasmi smiled and pointed his wand at the ground. ‘Tired yet, Potter?’ he asked.</p><p>            ‘Not even close,’ retorted Harry. He was about to provoke him back, but the words had vanished from Harry’s mouth as soon as he saw what he was facing next. Rasmi had conjured a massive, 10-foot high, mud golem from the ground between them. He heard the onlookers gasp as he saw it swinging its giant arms backwards in preparation for making, what was sure to be, a Harry-Potter-Crepe.</p><p>            Harry quickly summoned a large bright blue dome via a protective enchantment he had learned as an Auror. As the golem’s giant arms splattered over Harry’s defence, he thought to himself: this is remarkable. Every little act of stalling, every jab, and every taunt Rasmi had sent his way had been meticulously calculated to his own benefit. This was no ordinary boy. This young wizard was an artist of magic, a formidable opponent. It was a far more interesting duel than Harry had expected it to be.</p><p>            As the mud dispersed Harry got back up and vanished his protective dome. He suddenly realised Rasmi had gotten much closer to him. The young wizard had his arms crossed in a weird fashion before smiling at Harry, spreading them wide, and shouting ‘Sumōkumirā!’</p><p>            About a dozen Rasmi clones sprang out of the Rasmi’s sides and formed a circle around Harry. He was surrounded.</p><p>            ‘Crazy eh?’ said all the clones in unison. ‘I picked this little trick up in Kyoto. There is such variety of magic out there in the world, shame so many wizards only look within their own magical cultures for spells… Can you guess which one’s the REAL me?’</p><p>            Harry was thoroughly confused now. He raised his wand and aimed it at the Rasmi in front of him, the one out of which all the clones sprang out.</p><p>            ‘Impedimenta!’ called Harry. His jinx had reached its target… and went right through Rasmi’s clone as if it were a ghost.</p><p>            ‘Wrong one!’ called the Rasmi-s. They all mirrored each other’s movements and speech it seemed. Maybe I can use this to my advantage, thought Harry.</p><p>            Before he could think of something to do, however, all the Rasmi-s made the same swift motion and Harry was hit by 12 different Tickling Charms, each from a different direction. Or rather, one true Tickling Charm and 11 fake ones. An uncontrollable sensation of tickles swept Harry. He started laughing hysterically, he could barely breathe. </p><p>            ‘Ta… Tata… Tarant… Tarantallegra!’ called Harry through his giggles as his spell shot out of his wand and passed right through another one of Rasmi’s non-solid clones.</p><p>            Rasmi sent another hex disguised as 12 in Harry’s direction. He managed to escape that, however, by diving down flat on the ground. From the corner of his eye, Harry saw that the clones’ feet were not moving the grass as they shifted. Make him move around, he thought desperately.</p><p>            The clones sent another assortment of spells his way. Harry had managed to block it this time by spinning fast and performing another Shield Charm. He figured out the direction from which the spell came and shot a jinx that same way.</p><p>            ‘Missed again,’ said the clones.</p><p>            But Harry was not counting on hitting his target just yet. He focused on the clone before him and, as he shot his jinx, Harry had noticed a quick motion to the clone’s left. He then began shooting more charms, jinxes, and hexes in every direction to try and spot Rasmi’s feet shifting the grass below him.</p><p>            ‘This isn’t going to work Harry!’ taunted the clones again.</p><p>            Oh but it is, thought Harry as he stopped dramatically and stared at one of the clones. He was quite certain he knew where the real Rasmi was at that point.</p><p>            The Rasmi-s stared at him as he stood there unmoving, waiting for the right moment. The clones opened their mouths to taunt him again and, as they did, Harry raised his wand looking fiercely at the Rasmi straight ahead of him. In one swift motion, he called ‘Everte Statum!’ and pointed his wand at a spot directly behind him.</p><p>            It worked. With a quick yell, the real Rasmi flew up high in the air and landed on the ground several feet away. The clones vanished at once and Harry ran towards Rasmi’s figure.</p><p>            Rasmi got back on his feet quickly, aimed his wand at Harry and yelled ‘AHA!’</p><p>            ‘Expelliarmus!’ called Harry and Rasmi’s wand flew straight out of his right hand. He smiled triumphantly before noticing…</p><p>            ‘Wait, was that a… TWIG?!’</p><p>            ‘Stupefy!’</p><p>            Harry’s short-lived victory was snatched from him as he felt himself being launched backwards, his wand flying out of his hand. Rasmi had replaced his wand with a stick he had found on the ground and held it up as bait. As soon as Harry had let his guard down, he pulled his actual wand from behind his back with his left hand and stunned him. Harry let out a silent frustrated growl as he lay on the grass, defeated.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Into the Forest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Vampires, though most likely originating in either Europe or the Near East, can nowadays be found almost anywhere in the world,’ lectured Professor Selwyn. ‘They are dark, magical, humanoid beings that roam the night feeding on the blood of living creatures. Vampires are usually pale and gaunt in look, and have sharp fangs for puncturing the throats of their victims…’</p><p>            ‘You still want to do it this Saturday?’ whispered Scorpius to Albus.</p><p>            They were sat in the second row from the front of the classroom. It was not an ideal location for secretive planning during lecture, but Professor Selwyn had seldom noticed any whisperings as he taught.</p><p>            ‘I reckon it’s the best chance we’ve got. Molly’s gonna be at the match, along with the rest of the school and the teachers, and we’ll be able to just slip out unnoticed,’ replied Albus. The first Saturday of November was the traditional date given for the first Quidditch match of the school year: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Albus had decided he would rather miss it anyhow since he did not think he could bear even more insults and taunts by the Gryffindors; which were surely to come his way if he attended the match.</p><p>            ‘Yeah… but that would mean that, if we run into something while we’re in there, no one would hear us screaming for help…’ answered Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘We’ll be fine. Trust me. Like I told you, my dad always snuck out into the forest and he always came back alive.’</p><p>            Scorpius still did not seem quite sure of this plan they had concocted.</p><p>            It was to his benefit though, thought Albus as Professor Selwyn dragged on about old European vampire outbreaks. Even though it had defied all logic, and even though Rose and her friends had stopped supporting that rumour, many students at Hogwarts still believed Scorpius to be the Lost Child. It did not help that Johnathan Drake and his gang of bullies encouraged this story everywhere they went.</p><p>            Albus had his doubts about their plan too, however. It was quite farfetched, their plan. The boys had figured that the best way of finding out the Child’s identity, or whether they even existed, was to talk to someone who had been privy to Voldemort’s inner circle. That was, of course, a rather difficult task to achieve, as the majority of the old Death Eaters had been confined in Azkaban since before they were born. Albus hardly imagined the guards at the ancient prison would accommodate two 11-year-old boys who wanted an interview with Corban Yaxley. And regardless, he was sure his father had already thought of that. Since the Child had not yet been caught, Albus figured the old Death Eaters must have either lied or were not aware of the Child’s existence in the first place. </p><p>            Scorpius had then offered to write to his father, Draco Malfoy, and inquire whether he had heard anything about the Child (that was not already in the papers) during his short time as a Death Eater. Mr Malfoy’s reply came in the mail soon after. It contained a rather short, concise message: ‘Of course not. I would advise you to stay away from this nonsense, Scorpius. Ignore these Gryffindor buffoons. I will see you at Christmas,’ it read.</p><p>            But Albus had a better idea. True, it was daring, borderline insane, but he was sure nobody, not even his father, had thought of it. Albus and Scorpius were going to try and speak with Severus Snape.</p><p>            When Scorpius had initially heard Albus’ plan he had laughed himself silly. Severus Snape had been dead for almost twenty years, after-all. But that did not necessarily mean they could not talk to him. Albus remembered the stories his father had told him about a certain stone he had used to talk to his dead parents and friends during the Battle of Hogwarts. The Resurrection Stone was one of the fabled Deathly Hallows, and the only known way to truly resurrect the dead… in some form.</p><p>            The only issue with the plan was that Albus and Scorpius did not know exactly where Harry had dropped the stone on that fateful day. Albus knew that his father had dropped it somewhere near a clearing in the forest, the one that had once belonged to the, now infamous, Acromantula colony, but he had no clue where to look for it.</p><p>            The boys had since snuck into the Forbidden Forest twice already. They went in at times in which most students and teachers were busy with one thing or another, and therefore would have a lower chance of catching them going inside the forest. Each time they walked in a different direction, to try and cover as much ground as they could.</p><p>            They had not been to the forest in over a month, however, due to the fact that Albus’ cousin, and Prefect, Molly Weasley II, had caught them as they walked out of the forest on a Hogsmeade weekend. Ever since then she kept an eye on the two boys, which was inconvenient.</p><p>            ‘Now, as some of you may know, there are three major vampire settlements in the world, two of which are in Europe,’ continued Professor Selwyn. ‘Krovograd, the largest in the world with over a thousand inhabitants, is said to be hidden deep in the forests of Belarus. Sápadt Város, the other big vampiric settlement on the continent, is presumed to be somewhere in Hungary. And the last major vampire town, that we know of, in our world is the underground city of Ville Grave, which is located underneath one of the famously haunted cemeteries in the city of New Orleans in the United States. That is not to say that these are the only settlements that exist. There are many more, smaller, vampire communities out there, but these are the “big three” as they’re often called.’ </p><p>            ‘Professor,’ called Scorpius as he raised his hand in the air.</p><p>            ‘Yes, Mr Malfoy?’</p><p>            ‘Are there any vampires in the Forbidden Forest?’ he asked in a frightful tone.</p><p>            ‘Ha! Good question Malfoy,’ said Selwyn. ‘I’m afraid not. These beings generally prefer abandoned buildings, secluded castles, or underground lairs over forest dwellings. The only vampiric community in Britain can be found in London, and it consists of only a few dozen individuals I should say.’</p><p>            That seemed to have reassured Scorpius a little. The fact of the matter was, they had barely encountered any creatures on their previous visits to the Forbidden Forest. Nothing more intimidating than a few Bowtruckles, birds, and deer. They of course chose to only go into the forest during daylight hours as they felt it was the safest thing to do. When going deep enough in the forest, the sun’s rays could scarcely penetrate the thick cover of the trees. It was hard enough to see even without the added complication, and fear element, of night-time darkness.</p><p>            This time they had to do it right. It was the perfect opportunity. The entire school would be attending, and focusing solely on, the first match of the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. Albus had even learned how to perform the Four-Point Spell, a charm that caused the caster’s wand to behave as if it were a compass and point north, so they would be able to navigate better in the forest.</p><p>            ‘Professor, Professor,’ interrupted Connor Finnigan. ‘Who do you think would win in a fight, a vampire or a Dementor?’</p><p>            Everyone laughed.</p><p>            ‘Well,’ said Professor Selwyn when the laughter died down. ‘contrary to popular belief, vampires are not, strictly speaking, dead. While it is true that they can live for hundreds of years, they do eventually succumb to mortal death. All evidence suggests that they do possess souls, in which case, a Dementor would pose just as much of a risk to a vampire as it does for any other living, soul-bearing being. Does that answer your question, Mr Finnigan?’</p><p>            ‘But we still don’t know for sure who would win in a fight then, do we?’ he asked with a cheeky smile.</p><p>            ‘Considering the fact that the vast majority of the Dementor population is, and has been since nineteen ninety-eight, enclosed and sealed in a remote cave, therefore making the chance of an encounter between the two highly unlikely, I wouldn’t lose any sleep on that question Mr Finnigan.’ </p><p>            ‘But – ’</p><p>            ‘Mr Finnigan, this is a class about vampires and their characteristics and abilities, not about theoretical death-matches between different dark creatures. You will learn more about Dementors in your future years.’</p><p>*</p><p>The rest of the day passed by rather swiftly with a short period of Potions followed by Herbology. Their last period, however, had been Albus’ least favourite. Flying and Physical Education was the class Albus had been having the most trouble with. His skills on a broom roughly matched those of a mountain troll, and his running and jumping skills seemed to equal those too. He also hated the fact that Johnathan Drake, Luke McLaggen, and Phineas Gordon kept laughing and mocking him every time he had made some embarrassing move.</p><p>            ‘I hate Thursdays…’ said Albus as he sat down across from Scorpius in one of the chairs at their common room.</p><p>            ‘At least tomorrow we’re pretty much free,’ replied his friend.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, d’you reckon we should go to the library again to find more spells we could use?’</p><p>            ‘I don’t think we’ll have the time to master them by Saturday really… Let’s just relax tomorrow, play some Gobstones, we deserve it.’</p><p>            Soon after lunch the next day Albus and Scorpius went over to sit in one of the empty classrooms on the second floor. They spent their time playing Gobstones and joking about Michael Poults, the weird boy in their year, and his various – and seemingly unending – eccentricities. Albus had found the young Ravenclaw rather amusing at first, however, by the end of October, he had to admit that his tendency to ask so many convoluted, long, and incomprehensible questions, therefore extending their classes by several minutes sometimes, very much annoying and unhelpful. His extreme and over-the-top friendliness – to the point where it had seemed ungenuine – did not help his case either.</p><p>            ‘Do you think he will ever learn to formulate a question in his head before he opens his mouth?’ asked Scorpius in a mixture of frustration and amusement.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know, but if he ever tries to convince me to join his study group again, I’ll hex him.’</p><p>            They both giggled.</p><p>            ‘Whatcha doin’ Pygmy Puff?’ asked a voice from the doorway to the classroom. Albus had recognised it immediately. His brother James had always liked calling him by the nickname their mother had given him when he was 3 years old, especially when other people were present.</p><p>            James had just entered the classroom followed by his two best mates: their cousin Fred Weasley II and William “Ton” Harrington. He was soaking wet from head to toe, which made his brand new Gryffindor Quidditch team robes look more mahogany than scarlet.</p><p>            ‘Playing Gobstones, what do you want James?’ replied Albus.</p><p>            ‘We were passing by and I heard your voice. Is it so wrong of me to check on my little brother?’ he asked back in a fake angelic voice. Albus made a face at him.</p><p>            James and his group had been dubbed the true heirs of both the Marauders and Fred and George Weasley by many of the students – and some of the teachers (though much less fondly). Not only did he and his mates have a major tendency for rule-breaking, but Albus’ older brother had also excelled in Quidditch. Once the Captain and oldest member of the team, Raphael Morgan, had finished his seventh year, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before James Potter II would be replacing him as Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.</p><p>            ‘Are you coming to see me crush your housemates on the pitch tomorrow?’ inquired the older Potter.</p><p>            Fred snorted. ‘More like see him crash on the pitch tomorrow.’</p><p>            ‘Ignore him Pygmy Puff, he’s just jealous because your amazing brother was picked over him for the team.’</p><p>            ‘I might come, though I’m not sure about you winning really,’ replied Albus.</p><p>            ‘You <em>might </em>come?’ retorted James. ‘What does that mean?’</p><p>            ‘Well – ’</p><p>            ‘Are you going in the forest again??’</p><p>            ‘How did you – ’</p><p>            ‘Oh please,’ interrupted James, ‘our dear cousin keeps checking on you, and I saw you two coming back in the castle with twigs in your hair a few weeks back. I’m not stupid, Al, I know two plus two equals three.’</p><p>            ‘I – ’</p><p>            ‘Don’t get me wrong, I fully approve of this. Why, we’ve been in there a couple times ourselves – ’ started James.</p><p>            ‘Hear, hear,’ said Ton.</p><p>            ‘We’ll make a true rascal out of you yet,’ said Fred in a surprisingly good impersonation of McGonagall.</p><p>            ‘But why <em>are</em> you sneaking in the forest?’ finished James.</p><p>            ‘I… er… can’t tell you.’</p><p>            ‘Ooooooh so mysterious, Pygmy Puff, tell me, are you on a, <em>top-secret mission</em><strong>?</strong>’</p><p>            ‘Er…’</p><p>            ‘Well pop, pop, cheerio good man!’ said Fred, now in a perfect imitation of their uncle Percy. ‘We shouldn’t keep you waiting, what with all your secret plots and your plotted secrets. Scurry off now chaps, go on,’ he told James and Ton who giggled as they began walking back out of the room.</p><p>            ‘Just be careful Pygmy Puff! Our mum will gut me if you get hurt in there and she finds out I let you go!’ called James as he and his mates disappeared through the doorway.</p><p>*</p><p>Saturday morning came cloudy and cold to the Hogwarts grounds. Albus and Scorpius woke up to the excited atmosphere of their common room. Huge banners of silver and green hung from the walls and windows, and a large crowd of Slytherins was chatting spiritedly in the middle of the room. The boys had to weave through the flock of fellow students to go up for breakfast.</p><p>            At quarter to nine, the students began to trickle out of the Great Hall and off to the Quidditch pitch. Albus and Scorpius decided to wait for the rest of the school to leave the hall before trying to enter the forest. They passed their time drinking pumpkin juice and going over their plan in hushed voices.</p><p>            ‘We keep going north-west this time,’ said Albus. ‘We’ll walk for thirty minutes – ’</p><p>            ‘and if we can’t find anything, we go straight back,’ finished Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘And if we meet anything dangerous?’</p><p>            ‘Incendio and Flipendo.’</p><p>            ‘And we scarper.’</p><p>            ‘No use being brave if you end up dead,’ agreed Scorpius with a smile.</p><p>            When at last the final group of jabbering students had left the hall, Albus and Scorpius ran back down to the dungeons to retrieve the package of Demon Dung fireworks and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder they had borrowed from Janus Flint. They figured they could use those to distract anything that might try and chase them. Once they had hidden the powder and the fireworks in their pockets they climbed back out of the dungeons while looking around for anyone who might see them.</p><p>            ‘The coast looks clear,’ whispered Albus.</p><p>            ‘Go on then,’ Scorpius muttered back.</p><p>            They advanced across the Entrance Hall and through the great oak doors. Walking out into the cold November air they –</p><p>            ‘HULLO guys!’</p><p>            The one person Albus had wished to see the least – maybe other than a teacher – was Michael Poults. The sandy-haired boy had sneaked up on them as they were trying to slip through the Entrance Hall.</p><p>            ‘Oh, hey Michael…’ said Scorpius with obvious annoyance.</p><p>            ‘Skiving off Quidditch eh? Me too,’ he winked, oblivious as always to any indication he was not welcome at a certain situation. ‘I find it kind of dull and stupid, to be honest. I prefer a good, spirited chat or a game of Wizard's Checkers over the…’</p><p>            Albus’ temper was soaring as Michael Poults kept going on and on about Wizard's Checkers’ benefits. He had the unfortunate combination of the ability to talk for hours at a time along with the lack of ability to understand nuance.</p><p>            ‘…and, of course, there’s the high risk of brain injury in Quidditch which – ’</p><p>            ‘Okay Quidditch isn’t stupid, we’re not skiving off, and you can’t even skive off something you’re not obligated to attend!’ yelled Albus as his annoyance boiled over. He quickly realised his mistake.</p><p>            ‘Oh, so what are we doing then guys?’</p><p>            ‘We?’</p><p>            ‘Well, all of my friends are – er – at the Quidditch match right now so I thought maybe I can hang out with you guys for the day,’ replied Michael.</p><p>            Albus doubted these friends of his even existed. Which caused, for the very first time, for a tinge of pity to be added to his overwhelming annoyance with Michael Poults. It cannot be easy, being this unpopular with everyone at the school, even the teachers.</p><p>            ‘I mean er – ’</p><p>            ‘Look Michael,’ intervened Scorpius before Albus could do any more damage, ‘we were actually hoping to be left alone for this so – and don’t take this the wrong way – but we would rather not have you with us for – ’</p><p>            ‘Wait, are you guys breaking the rules?’ asked Poults in a hushed tone. When the boys looked at each other in silence for a split second he seemed to have taken it as confirmation. ‘In that case, I think I should definitely come with you. You know, to make sure <em>nobody is telling on you</em>,’ he said pointedly.</p><p>            Albus turned to Scorpius again. His friend’s eye was twitching, which made him look slightly psychotic. Was this kid really blackmailing them into hanging out with him?</p><p>            ‘Er…’ began Albus.</p><p>            ‘I guess so…’ muttered Scorpius through gritted teeth.</p><p>            ‘EXCELLENT!’ shouted Michael.</p><p>            ‘SHHHHHH! Shut up,’ the boys silenced him.</p><p>            ‘Sorry.’</p><p>            ‘Come’on now, we haven’t got much time,’ whispered Scorpius.</p><p>            They advanced through the misty grounds in a haste. As they walked, the boys could hear William “Ton” Harrington’s commentary at the distance.</p><p>            ‘And Molly Weasley takes the Quaffle, passing it on to Smith, now Webb, now Weasley again, back to Webb who – drops it… </p><p>            ‘Meanwhile, James Potter, the brand new and promising Gryffindor Seeker seems to still be scanning their side of the pitch for the Snitch. Fun fact, did you know that James Potter’s initials are J.S.P? Also a common abbreviation for Jagged Scaly Peni– ’  </p><p>            ‘Harrington!’</p><p>            ‘Sorry Professor. And now he’s making a rude gesture at your handsome commentator… tut tut J.S.P, tut tut.’</p><p>            The forest looked dark and menacing this morning as there was very little light to begin with due to the heavy, dark grey clouds above. Once Michael realised where they were headed, his happy demeanour shifted to fear and feeble panic.</p><p>            ‘Wait, are we – you guys want to – but – the Forbidden Forest?!’ he protested.</p><p>            ‘Like we said,’ began Albus, ‘you don’t have to come.’</p><p>            ‘I, I… er…’</p><p>            ‘No, no, no. Now that we know you’re gonna tell on us if you don’t, you’re coming with us,’ said Scorpius in a threatening tone.</p><p>            ‘What? Oh no, I’m not going to tell on you, I’ll go straight to my dormitory, yes I – ’</p><p>            ‘Save it. You’re coming or I’ll hex you.’</p><p>            That seemed to have done the trick. Michael swallowed heavily and kept following them. Without another word, the three boys had looked behind them one last time and entered the forest through one of the paths.</p><p>            ‘Why are we even going in there?’ inquired Michael in a trembling voice.</p><p>            ‘We’re trying to find this special stone – ’</p><p>            ‘The Resurrection Stone? I know your dad dropped it in here somewhere,’ he clarified at the odd looks the other boys gave him. ‘Read about it in <em>The Second Wizarding War: The Story of Harry Potter</em>.’</p><p>            As they advanced through the forest, Albus laid his wand flat in his hand and muttered ‘Point Me.’ His wand immediately shifted to point northward.</p><p>            ‘Neat trick,’ said Michael.</p><p>            ‘Thanks.’</p><p>            ‘I like learning extracurricularly myself you know, where did you – ’</p><p>            ‘Merlin’s hat, not now Michael, please,’ whispered Scorpius.</p><p>            The further in they went, the darker it got. The trees of the forest grew much closer together in these parts.</p><p>            ‘Can you light up your wands? I can barely see ahead,’ asked Albus.</p><p>            ‘Lumos,’ murmured Michael and Scorpius.</p><p>            The trio kept walking through the thickening woods, the lights of their wands barely penetrating the thick mist and darkness ahead. It was quiet, too quiet. There were no birds or squirrels about and even the leaves on the trees did not shift with a light breeze. The air was standing still. It somehow felt even colder here than on the open grounds.</p><p>            ‘What was that?’ Michael asked suddenly. </p><p>            ‘What was what?’ Scorpius queried back.</p><p>            ‘I thought I heard like a clicking sound in the distance. Over there.’</p><p>            Scorpius held his wand high and aimed it at the spot Michael had pointed at. ‘I can’t see anything,’ he said.</p><p>            ‘We’ll keep an eye out,’ muttered Albus. ‘Let’s keep moving.’</p><p>            The path became progressively slimmer as the boys walked deeper and deeper into the forest.</p><p>            ‘What do you reckon?’ asked Albus as he glanced at his wristwatch, their thirty minutes were almost over.</p><p>            ‘Well, I don’t see a hollow anywhere, and all the stones here look normal to me. I guess we can start heading back,’ Scorpius said in clear disappointment.</p><p>            ‘Please don’t go,’ said a voice which made them all jump a mile in the air.</p><p>            ‘Who – who’s that?!’ called Albus. They looked around frantically but could not spot the source of the voice.</p><p>            ‘You are looking for the stone that Harry Potter dropped in here, all those years ago, are you not?’ asked the voice. It was girly and soft, yet quite odd. ‘You are so close, the spot is very near here, where the spiders used to live.’</p><p>            ‘W – who are you? How – how do you know?’ asked Scorpius, he now sounded truly afraid.</p><p>            ‘I am, I was, a girl. I haunt this forest,’ replied the voice.</p><p>            ‘Are – are you a ghost?’</p><p>            ‘You can call me that… I fell in the battle. That same battle when the Dark Lord was defeated.’</p><p>            ‘L – Lavender? Lavender Brown?’ asked Albus in wonder.</p><p>            ‘Oh, you know me! Clever boy. And who might you be?’</p><p>            ‘I’m Albus, I’m Harry’s son.’</p><p>            ‘Why that’s wonderful,’ said Lavender in excitement. ‘If you follow me, I can lead you to the stone’s location. Right through here.’ As Lavender said these words, a small, glittering little drop of silver lit up to their right.</p><p>            Albus looked at Scorpius who gave him a look that said, “might as well.” Michael seemed dumbstruck with fear. Albus gave his friend a nod and proceeded to walk towards the drop of light. It led them off the path and into the woods ahead.</p><p>            The trio followed the light in silence while their robes got caught on branches and the ends of their trousers got ripped on little thorns. They walked for several minutes before Albus spoke.</p><p>            ‘Er… Lavender? How much further is it?’</p><p>            ‘Not long, sweet boy, we’ll be there soon.’</p><p>            ‘Guys, I’m not sure about this…’ Michael seemed to have gained enough courage to speak up.</p><p>            ‘Oh no, please, that stone has caused so much misery in this forest, you must come,’ begged Lavender.</p><p>            They kept following her through the dark trees. The little ball of light seemed to pick up the pace every time Scorpius raised his wand to get a better look at it.</p><p>            Lavender led them through a couple more thick bushes before the drop of light came to a halt. It stopped at the very edge of a large crater, with old webs scattered around it.</p><p>            ‘That must be the place!’ called Scorpius.</p><p>            ‘Is this it? asked Albus. ‘Is that where the stone is? Lavender?’</p><p>            ‘Oh, the stone?’ she replied.</p><p>            Michael began tugging Albus’ robes.</p><p>            ‘Not now Michael. Yeah – er – the Resurrection Stone, the one that my dad dropped here.’</p><p>            ‘Oh…’</p><p>            ‘Not <em>now</em> Michael.’</p><p>            ‘A boy came here, several years ago, he took the stone, and killed my sisters, and then he left… No… the stone is not here sweet boy,’ replied Lavender. Though it was still girly and sweet, there was some roughness to her voice now, some savagery.</p><p>            ‘What? What do you mean killed – What boy? I –  What Michael, what is it?!?!’</p><p>            But Albus did not need to ask what it was, as Michael pointed upwards, he spotted the exact reason for his fervent tugging…</p><p>            A gigantic, perhaps the size of a carthorse, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, spider hung from the boughs above them. It was attached via the thinnest of webs to the drop of – what they had believed was light – which led directly into its horrible mouth. To his horror, the spider began to speak to Albus in that same gentle voice.</p><p>            ‘Come now sweet boy, let us have you for dinner,’ it said as it clicked its horrible pincers and descended upon them.</p><p>            Without thinking, Albus grabbed his Demon Dung fireworks pack and threw it at the monster. The pack exploded as it hit the spider’s face, unleashing a shower of sparks that stunk like dung.</p><p>            The trio bolted as the giant spider screeched in pain. They ran with Michael at the front before another massive spider – this one the size of a large dog – jumped onto him and pinned him to the ground.</p><p>            Albus heard Michael screaming in horror.</p><p>            ‘Flipendo!’ he called, and the eight-legged horror flew off the petrified boy.</p><p>            ‘Er – Albus, I think we might have a problem,’ he heard Scorpius’ trembling voice behind him.</p><p>            Albus turned around and saw what must have been around twenty of them, all black, hairy, and ginormous, facing the boys from the branches and clicking their pincers.</p><p>            *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*</p><p>            That sound made Albus’ stomach turn with shock and disgust. The cluster got closer and closer as they crawled on their webs and down towards the boys.</p><p>            Albus looked at his friend and said, ‘get ready to grab Michael and run.’</p><p>            He pointed his wand at the spiders – he had to wait for the right moment – and then looked again at Scorpius to make sure he got the message.</p><p>            The spider closest to them jumped off its web –</p><p>            ‘Incendio!’</p><p>            A jet of bright yellow flames burst out of Albus’ wand. It caught the monster square in the face; it lit up and roared in agony. Albus pointed his wand at the ground around them and began to light the bushes on fire. They got their chance.</p><p>            Scorpius threw down the Instant Darkness Powder and the boys fled through the pitch-black darkness.</p><p>            Albus ran, the fastest he had ever run in his lifetime. He ran as –</p><p>            A sharp, searing pain at his ankle stopped him and Albus dropped hard on the ground. One of the spiders held his entire foot in its disgusting mouth.</p><p>            ‘HELP!’ he called.</p><p>            His wand fell out of his hand, he did not have any fireworks left, and the others were far off already… that was it. It was all about to end. Like this… this horrible – *SPLAT*</p><p>            An even more enormous figure had smashed the spider flat with a massive wooden club.</p><p>            ‘BAD SPIDY!’ yelled the giant as he spun his club to strike at the oncoming horde. They fought each other viciously with the club swinging dangerously and the spiders jumping around the massive figure, trying to strike at him. </p><p>            Albus pulled his bleeding foot from under the squashed spider. It hurt like hell. He tried to get up but failed to hold himself properly. Albus then looked around for the other two boys. As if on cue, Scorpius and Michael ran towards him and helped him up.</p><p>            Albus turned his head back to the fight in front of him. It was over. The giant roared at the retreating spiders while shaking a nearby tree off its roots.</p><p>            ‘Wh – what the hell is that?!!’ stammered Michael.</p><p>            ‘This – this – ’ Albus told through his pain, ‘this is Grawp, I’m assuming, Hagrid’s half-brother.’</p><p>            ‘Hagrid’s what??’</p><p>            ‘Half-brother. I never met him in person, but Hagrid said he lives in a big mud hut in the forest. I reckon that’s him…’</p><p>            The giant threw the tree in the general direction of the fleeing spiders and then turned to Albus.</p><p>            ‘Studen? STUDEN!!!’ he roared, shaking the entire forest.</p><p>            ‘Hi Grawp – ergh – Nice to meet you, I’m Albus, these are Scorpius and Michael, we’re friends of Hagrid. Thank you for – ’</p><p>            ‘FREN HAGGER?’ said the giant. ‘COME GRAWP!’</p><p>            With one motion Grawp grabbed Albus by his waist – careful not to scrape his wounded foot – and held him in his arms. He then proceeded to walk in the direction of the castle.</p><p>            ‘COME GRAWP!!’ he roared at Scorpius and Michael when he noticed they were not following him.</p><p>            ‘Grab my wand please!’ called Albus.</p><p>            The boys obliged and started to walk behind the giant.</p><p>            They advanced through the forest in enormous steps. The boys had to break into a run to keep up with Grawp.</p><p>            The woods around them soon became sparser again. Thin rays of sunshine could now be seen through the canopy. Albus was on the verge of passing out at this point, his leg was hurting fiercely. That spider must’ve been venomous, he thought as he fought to stay awake.</p><p>            Several minutes later they came out of the forest. Albus could hazily see a massive group of celebrating students all clad in red. His brother had won Gryffindor the match.</p><p>            Albus could hold no longer, he had only managed to hear faint screams as the group spotted them before everything started going dark.</p><p>            ‘What in Merlin’s pants is this?!!’ he heard Neville’s voice say…</p><p>*</p><p>Albus woke up to the dim light of the hospital wing. The soft, white covers of his hospital bed brushed against his skin. His leg still hurt though not as badly. Albus blinked and raised his head slowly.</p><p>            ‘Oh, thank Merlin!’</p><p>            ‘Hey, he woke up!’</p><p>            ‘Bloody hell Al, you’re thick as a troll, going after the Acromantulas…’</p><p>            Albus was surrounded by his brother James, his cousins: Molly, Rose, Roxanne, Fred, Victoire, and Dominique, and his friend Scorpius. They all stared at him; most in pity, others – Rose and Molly – with a mixture of worry and disapproval.</p><p>            ‘Wha – ’ he began.</p><p>            ‘You got bitten. Acromantula venom,’ explained Scorpius. ‘Madam Longbottom took care of your foot pretty fast, but she said you should rest here for a couple of days…’</p><p>            ‘And you’re bloody lucky the Acromantulas got you or I would’ve been way worse,’ said Molly as she grabbed his ear painfully.</p><p>            ‘OUCH! Molly stop!’ he yelled. ‘How many points did we lose?’ he asked his friend, dreading the answer.</p><p>            ‘A hundred…’</p><p>            ‘WHAT?!’</p><p>            ‘Each…’</p><p>            ‘Serves you right you dolts!’ barked Rose from the edge of his bed. ‘You could have been killed! You could’ve killed Michael Poults!’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, I kinda wish we did you know…’ said Scorpius bitterly. ‘That Rat… you know he ran straight to Professor Longbottom and snitched on us? “They made me do it!” he said “They forced me to go in the forest sir! I tried to stop them!” The prick.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah well, it is technically true… we did sort of force him to go with us so he wouldn’t tell,’ replied Albus with a shadow of a grin. The surrealness of the situation began creeping on him.</p><p>            James and Fred laughed.</p><p>            ‘There’s my Pigmy Puff!’ said his brother with a wink. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll earn them points back.’</p><p>            ‘And if not, well, you’re sort of a hero in Gryffindor now!’ said Fred giggling.</p><p>            ‘Great…’ muttered Albus.</p><p>            ‘Did you see that I won the match Al? I caught the Snitch like it was a garden gnome,’ said James as he mimed his catching of the snitch.</p><p>            ‘T’was spectacular,’ added Fred.</p><p>            Albus was not really in the mood to discuss Quidditch right now. He could already imagine the “hero’s welcome” he would get in Slytherin once they realise Scorpius and he had lost them 200 points the same day they lost their first match against Gryffindor…</p><p>            ‘Do mum and dad know that I’m here?’ he inquired of his brother.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, they sent Athena with a letter this afternoon. Said they’ll be here tomorrow morning.’</p><p>            ‘Great… now dad’s gonna chew me out too…’</p><p>            ‘At least you weren’t here for Professor McGonagall and Professor McGarth…’ said Scorpius. ‘They were furious, never seen them like this. McGarth said she’ll see to it that we’re expelled if we so much as set another toe out of line. Said she would’ve never expected this behaviour out of Slytherins. I had to tell them why we went in there too…’</p><p>            ‘I mean really what were you thinking?!’ Rose burst out again. ‘Going into the forest to find the Resurrection Stone and talk to Snape… bloody idiots… Didn’t you think McGonagall would’ve already thought of talking to him?? He was a Headmaster here; his portrait is in her office!’</p><p>            Albus had never felt this dumb in his life. Of course McGonagall had already talked to Snape, why did he not think of that?</p><p>            ‘But it wasn’t all for nothing,’ said Scorpius suddenly. ‘We know that the stone is not in the forest anymore.’</p><p>            ‘What do you mean?’ Rose and Molly asked in unison.</p><p>            ‘Well, the spider said some “boy” came a few years back and took it.’</p><p>            ‘What? It’s gone? Are you sure?’ inquired Molly.</p><p>            ‘They could have lied – I mean – we haven’t seen it, but why would they? Why lie about this?’</p><p>            ‘So somebody has the Resurrection Stone now…’ Molly seemed to be thinking fast.</p><p>            ‘D’you think it was the Child who took it?’ asked Albus.</p><p>            ‘Maybe. Maybe it was somebody else who wanted to talk to Voldemort. Maybe that’s how they found out about the Child.’</p><p>            A shiver went through Albus’ spine.</p><p>            ‘Al, you’ve got to tell this to your dad, okay? And Professor McGonagall. They must know about this.’</p><p>            Albus agreed. Soon after, Madam Longbottom came out of her study to shoo his visitors to their beds. In the darkness and silence, he thought of the Child; who were they? And the stone, who could have taken it? And why? ‘Several years ago,’ it had said; that could be anything between three and nineteen years…</p><p>            He soon drifted into an uneasy sleep. Albus dreamt that night about giant spiders. Spiders and snakes. Crawling, slithering around him.</p><p>            A hooded figure walked by him. Albus tried to reach it, to take off its hood and reveal its identity, but the figure kept flying away. It laughed a cold, high laugh as it landed out of reach. Snakes slipped around Albus’ feet as the figure lowered its hood.</p><p>            It revealed a face. A horrific, snake-like face, with pale white skin and dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils. It looked at Albus and smiled a terrible smile…</p><p>            Albus woke up in cold sweat. He shook his head and muttered, ‘just a dream,’ turned over onto his other side and fell asleep again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. A Night-Time Stroll</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Snow fell on the Hogwarts grounds rather early that year. As November progressed into December, the trees around the castle stood barren and lifeless, and the greying grass of the lawns and courtyards was covered by a fresh layer of white. The monochrome depressing look of the castle grounds reflected onto the cold, harsh surface of the lake beside it. </p><p>            Inside the castle, however, things could not be more different. A warm and colourful environment as usual, Hogwarts had always been impressive with its holiday decorations. Floating glass baubles, wreaths, Christmas trees, and the occasional Menorah filled the corridors and classrooms of the castle; the most impressive of which were the traditional Twelve Christmas Trees that stood tall in the Great Hall. A general buzz of excited conversation was often heard as the students discussed their plans for the upcoming Christmas holidays.</p><p>            Riya could not wait much longer for the relief of the coming holidays. The past couple months had been a living nightmare for her. Tom was still ignoring her, the entire house of Hufflepuff appeared to equally hate her, and – to add to her misery – her teachers seemed to have collectively decided to pile on as much work as possible before the holidays.</p><p>            Their last Friday at Hogwarts came as a blessing. Riya sat quietly in her last Transfiguration class for the term, picturing her family’s traditional venture to Camden Market the week before Christmas. She was also planning on visiting Molly in Cotswolds for a few days and maybe – should the weather permit it – go to Diagon Alley with her for a day.</p><p>            ‘There is an irrefutable delicacy in the transfiguration of an owl into opera glasses,’ lectured Professor Montgomery. ‘As you know, the Strigiforma spell can have disastrous results should you get it wrong. We must all remember Prodigeous Lathos, the poor lad who accidentally turned his owl into a snow leopard that promptly bit off his nose.’</p><p>            Riya looked at her own chubby owl, it napped lazily in its perch. Somehow, she doubted that – even if it did turn into a vicious leopard – it would hardly bother biting her. Her teacher, on the other hand… Well, ever since they ran into him on that day in September, Professor Montgomery did not seem himself. For one, he kept randomly appearing everywhere they went in the castle, almost as if watching their every move closely. Another odd behaviour he displayed lately was the fact that he looked rather clouded and unresponsive. He gave his lectures in a somewhat robotic manner which did not suit him at all. Something was definitely bothering him, occupying his otherwise brilliantly sharp mind. </p><p>            ‘So,’ he continued, ‘remember the movements that we practised and consider the flesh and feather to glass and metal equation we’ve discussed. For our next class, four weeks from now, I would like you to write me a two-foot-long essay on the potential hazards of living animal transformations. I would also expect you to practise the wand movements and incantation as we will be attempting the charm again in that same class. Have a good break everyone.’</p><p>            The students got up from their seats and walked to the back of the class and into the corridor. Molly joined Riya on her way to lunch.</p><p>            ‘I’m telling you; he keeps shooting creepy looks at me,’ she told her friend.</p><p>            ‘He was never like this, maybe there’s something on his mind,’ answered Riya.</p><p>            ‘Maybe he’s trying to hide something, more like… But he seemed perfectly fine until this year, really up until that Hogsmeade weekend. This could be connected to all the weird stuff that’s been happening…’</p><p>            ‘Hey, can we maybe drop this subject?’ asked Riya in exasperation. ‘I’m tired of having the same conversations over and over again… yes Montgomery is acting weird, yes it might all be connected. We already told your uncle Harry everything we know, he’s dealing with it, so can we please – ’</p><p>            ‘<em>Okay</em>, I’m dropping it’ said Molly, slightly annoyed. ‘I know you’re having a tough time Ri; I just wish you could see past that Tom git…’</p><p>            The girls kept walking in silence to the Great Hall. It has been over a month since Harry Potter, Molly’s uncle by marriage, had interviewed them. He came to the school the day after Albus was hospitalised and, once he had finished chewing out his son for being so criminally irresponsible, he came over to the Gryffindor common room and asked Molly to recount her version of events (since she had seen Albus being carried out of the forest by Hagrid’s giant half-brother). It was then that the girls had told him all they had witnessed that Saturday afternoon in September. He had listened intently as they recounted Tom’s odd behaviour and Montgomery’s suspicious actions. These facts seemed to have confirmed a few of the famous Auror’s suspicions.</p><p>            And yet, it had been a month since, and there were no arrests and no actions taken. Everything appeared to have gone back to normal…  </p><p>            Riya and Molly sat down at their usual spots at the Gryffindor table. As Riya helped herself for a portion of mashed potatoes and green beans, Molly picked up a Daily Prophet edition that was left on the table. She took a swig of pumpkin juice… and promptly spit it out.</p><p>            ‘Look!’ she cried. Molly turned her paper over to Riya. A broad-shouldered, young wizard with a closely trimmed beard was smiling at her from the front page of the paper.</p><p>            ‘What?’ asked Riya.</p><p>            ‘It’s <em>him</em>, that bloke we saw the day of our Hogsmeade visit. It’s that Erasmus van-something guy, I’m sure of it.’</p><p>            ‘So?’</p><p>            ‘So?! What was he doing here? Why was he wandering around the castle that same day everything and everyone started being weird?’</p><p>            ‘You don’t think he had something to do with all of this?’</p><p>            ‘I mean, it is a pretty odd coincidence, isn’t it? And listen to this – ’ Molly turned the paper back to face her and began to read: ‘“…known for inventing the Amarous charm and defeating the most dangerous dark wizard since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named – ” I really wish they would just call him Voldemort, he’s been dead for almost twenty years “ – Mortedigne, along with the terrible Japanese dark wizard, Shinohakobite, Erasmus van Helmont has recently been hailed as one of the greatest wizards of the twenty-first century.” Call me mental, but you don’t just defeat two crazy powerful dark wizards on your own without practising some serious dark magic yourself.’</p><p>            ‘Give me that,’ said Riya as she pulled the paper out of her friend’s hands. She scanned over the article before reading another paragraph out loud: ‘“His recent miraculous invention, the Nuntillud – a simple magical device that allows its users to communicate with each other instantly – has caught the attention of many prominent figures in the wizarding world. The company Magicae Modern, founded by van Helmont, has recently signed a lucrative deal with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” Call <em>me</em> mental, but if he’s signing “lucrative” deals with your uncle he might not be committing major crimes around Hogwarts.’</p><p>            ‘But wouldn’t that be the perfect cover? If he pretends to be chummy with Law Enforcement, he can easily slip under the radar! Even uncle Harry has been fooled before.’</p><p>            ‘I don’t know about this Mol… You’re really reading into things that aren’t necessarily – well – things.’</p><p>            ‘Whatever…’</p><p>            ‘Anyway,’ Riya kept on, in an attempt to change the subject, ‘which shift did you get for night patrols?’ The prefects at Hogwarts had the unfortunate responsibility of patrolling the corridors to ensure that other students were not breaking curfew. Usually, they would only patrol the corridors until midnight, but the night before everyone left for the holidays was particularly prone to mischief. This meant that the prefects of every house had to take shifts throughout the night.</p><p>            ‘I got nine o’clock to eleven,’ replied Molly. ‘They partnered me with O’Reilly, that dim-witted – ’</p><p>            ‘At least you didn’t get partnered with your ex…’ Riya cut her off.</p><p>            ‘Right, Merlin’s nightgown that’s awful that they put you with Nowak… We can switch you know…’</p><p>            ‘And prove that I’m uncomfortable spending time with this git? I’d rather not give him the satisfaction.’</p><p>            ‘What period did you get?’</p><p>            ‘One o’clock to three…’</p><p>            Molly made a disgusted face.</p><p>            ‘I just wish there were more prefects to go around,’ said Riya miserably. ‘Maybe then we wouldn’t be so stressed… And I wouldn’t have to spend two hours of my night with Nasty Nowak.’</p><p>            Molly chuckled. ‘There’re already more prefects than there used to be, you know. My dad says that in his time there were only two from each house: a boy and a girl. McGonagall changed it to four because there are almost twice as many students now.’</p><p>            Riya smiled. She remembered how pleased Molly’s father had been in the summer before their fifth year, when the girls had gotten their prefect badges. Pompous Percy, as many had dubbed him, was the Head of the Department of Magical Transportation. Pretentious, arrogant, and stiff-necked – though not unkind – Percy Weasley had considered prefect-hood one of the highest honours that can be bestowed upon a student at Hogwarts (second only to Head-Boy-hood).</p><p>            Once the girls finished their lunch at the Great Hall, Molly suggested they walk back to the common room to relax a little.</p><p>            ‘Oof I’m so full,’ exclaimed Molly. ‘I might just go for a cheeky nap before – ’ *THUMP*</p><p>            A giant snowball hit her square in the face as they walked out of the Great Hall. Riya threw back her head laughing at her friend before receiving the snowball’s twin full in her mouth. Choking and coughing, Riya – through her tearing eyes – could see Molly chasing her cousins James and Fred, along with their mate Ton, out into the snow-clad grounds.</p><p>            ‘Oh, you’re done now! You better run fast you little bastards, once I catch you, you’re gonna get fu – ’ *THOMP* Another snowball hit her in the face.</p><p>            ‘YUCK that’s horrible! You’re our cousin Mol!’ called Fred.</p><p>            Riya followed her friend out of the castle – laughing harder than she had laughed for the past two months – as Molly raised her wand and conjured a few dozen snowballs of her own.</p><p>            ‘Help! We’re being attacked by a rogue prefect!’ yelled James as he dodged a shower of fresh snow that was thrown at him.</p><p>            ‘Shut up, you started it!’ called Molly.</p><p>            Riya joined the snowball fight with another small ensemble of enchanted balls. The boys were less experienced in magic than Molly and Riya, but they made up for it by sheer numbers and swiftness. They battled fiercely through the grounds, throwing snow of various shapes and sizes at each other.</p><p>            ‘You know what? I think it’s time to add some more fire – I mean snow – power to this!’ called Ton.</p><p>            ‘You mean initiate protocol fluffy falconet?’ retorted James as he dived behind a bush.</p><p>            ‘Let’s do this!’ yelled Fred.</p><p>            ‘GO TEAM MISCHEIVIOUS MEDDLERS!’ shouted the boys.</p><p>            ‘You guys are so cringe – oh shi – ’ called Riya before spotting the massive snow cannon that the boys had raised out of the ground. The girls had to dive out of the way of a fresh flurry of snow that was shot at them from the boys’ cannon.</p><p>            Fifteen minutes later, Riya and Molly strode back into the warm castle. Cold, wet, and defeated, they pointed their wands at themselves and performed a Hot Air Charm to dry off their robes.</p><p>            ‘I can’t believe we just got schooled by your nitwit third-year cousins,’ laughed Riya.</p><p>            ‘They’re far from nitwits if you ask me. That was some impressive magic right there,’ said Molly in spite of herself.</p><p>            The rest of Riya’s day was spent lounging at the Gryffindor common room. The girls sat at their favourite table by the window and watched James and his mates down below turning their snow-filled-ferocity at Rose and her group of friends.</p><p>            After going back down again for dinner and a stop for a quick shower, Molly had to go to her patrol duties. Riya decided to try and sleep as much as she could before going on her own nightmarish patrol.</p><p>*</p><p>At 00:45 Riya woke to her alarm bell – and quickly silenced it as to not wake the other girls in her dormitory. Molly was already snoring in the bed right next to hers. She climbed out of her four-poster silently and got dressed.</p><p>            Jacob Nowak, her ex-boyfriend, was waiting by the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.</p><p>            ‘Ready?’ he asked.</p><p>            Riya nodded unenthusiastically at him.</p><p>            The two proceeded silently out of the portrait hole and onto the Fat Lady's Corridor on the seventh floor. They walked through the hallways soundlessly for a few minutes before Jacob broke the silence.</p><p>            ‘You know,’ he said cautiously, ‘I never meant to –’</p><p>            ‘Save it,’ Riya cut him off.</p><p>            ‘Look Riya, I agree, I was an idiot, but that’s not who I am anymore. I’m done being a boy. I’m a man now and – ’ he paused as Riya snorted.</p><p>            ‘You had three days to come up with something good to say to me and you chose to go with “I’m a mAn nOw RiYa?” Pathetic.’</p><p>            ‘And what do you call what that Hufflepuff bloke did to you exactly?’ he asked back spitefully. ‘I told you to watch your back with this guy, he doesn’t seem very stable now, does he?’</p><p>            ‘Whatever Jacob, it’s none of your business who I’m involved with,’ she replied.</p><p>            ‘Oh, but it is my business. I still care about you Riya. And those Hufflepuffs are not as harmless as they seem, even if they are as stupid.’</p><p>            ‘Give me a break, Tom is so much more intelligent than you’ll ever be.’</p><p>            ‘See and you’re still defending him! After everything he’s done to you! How sick is that??’</p><p>            ‘Jacob, if you’re going to keep pestering me, I would rather just patrol alone thank you very much. I don’t need you and your obsessions making this night-time stroll any more annoying than it already is.’</p><p>            ‘Whatever Riya, I said what I had to say.’</p><p>            They kept walking through the dark halls of the castle in silence. Everything looked much eerier now, quieter, and more mysterious. Though the holiday decorations had lent it a cheerful look during the day, at night-time the floating glass baubles and wreaths added to the castle’s spooky atmosphere.</p><p>            Riya and Jacob found themselves on the ground floor of the castle at around 2:00. Riya was now thoroughly bored and miserable. Jacob kept shooting anxious looks at her as if trying to gather the courage to speak up again.</p><p>            ‘Do you reckon we should go down to the kitchens?’ he asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.</p><p>            ‘Nah, I don’t think James, Fred, and Ton would be raiding the kitchens at <em>this</em> hour, even they have to sleep sometimes…’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, but maybe we could get something. I’m feeling kinda hungry.’</p><p>            ‘Typical…’</p><p>            ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’</p><p>            ‘Nothing. Let’s go up again, through here.’</p><p>            Riya led him behind a pair of tapestries and up through a narrow staircase with a suit of armour at its top. Riya hopped right over the infamous trick step of that stairway, but Jacob stepped right onto it and got his foot stuck inside.</p><p>            ‘Merlin’s hat you’re thick,’ said Riya exasperatedly through Jacob slurry of curses. ‘We go through here every day, how can you not remember to skip this one?’</p><p>            ‘I wasn’t paying attention, you’re too distracting. Can you help me now, please?’ he replied.</p><p>            Riya giggled. ‘Stop wiggling, you’re making it worse. Here,’ she grabbed his leg and pulled him out.</p><p>            ‘Thanks… hey Riya look, I’m sorry if I was pushy and annoying just now. I just don’t really know how to act around you, you know? Maybe I’m still a bit of a stupid child that – ’</p><p>            ‘Shhhh!’</p><p>            ‘What? What now – ’</p><p>            ‘No Jacob be quiet. I heard something.’</p><p>            Though her companion had not noticed, Riya had distinctly heard a loud crack and thud from the floor above them. She sped upwards, past the suit of armour and onto the second-floor corridor.</p><p>            It was quiet and empty.</p><p>            Jacob appeared shortly behind her. ‘What did you hear?’ he asked.</p><p>            ‘I heard a sound, like a loud crash and thump, sort of like if someone got cursed around here or something…’ she replied.</p><p>            ‘I don’t see anything.’</p><p>            ‘Maybe they covered their tracks… come on.’</p><p>            Riya sped along the corridor, checking around her to see if there were any signs of a struggle. She stopped next to a couple suits of armour and listened for any other suspicious noises. A light, low, and hushed sound of breathing came from somewhere ahead of them.</p><p>            ‘Can you hear that?’ she asked Jacob. He nodded at her. They paced carefully ahead towards the source of the sound.</p><p>             ‘Here,’ Jacob pointed at a nearby suit of armour. He walked up to it, lifted its visor, and looked inside. ‘Oh my god,’ he whispered.</p><p>            Riya ran toward him, but he signalled her to stop and look around them. Jacob quickly took apart the armour and pulled out a small creature, with spindly arms and legs, and an oversized head and eyes. A house-elf.</p><p>            This particular house-elf was old. He had a bulbous, snout-like nose, bloodshot eyes, many folds of skin, and white hair growing out of his bat-like ears. The elf was unconscious but definitely alive.</p><p>            ‘Stunned most likely,’ stated Jacob. ‘But who would do that and then stuff him in a suit of armour like that?’</p><p>            ‘Do you think he was following someone?’ asked Riya.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know. He doesn’t seem familiar. I’ve been to the kitchens a few times and I’ve never seen this old bloke… He must’ve come from outside – HEY!’</p><p>            Riya turned around just in time to see a jet of red light hit Jacob’s chest, rendering him unconscious. A tall, hooded figure stood at the end of the corridor with its wand held threateningly.</p><p>            ‘NO!!’ screamed Riya. She lifted her wand and sent a stunning spell of her own at the figure. It blocked it with ease and countered with a Leg-Locker Curse.</p><p>            Whoever they were, they were fast, insanely fast. Riya tried all she could – duelling the hooded person fiercely – but alas, one of the dark figure’s Full Body-Bind Curse hit her square in her face. Riya’s arms and legs snapped together, and she fell down, stiff as a board.</p><p>            The figure approached Riya, Jacob, and the poor elf. She tried to struggle against the curse but – try as she might – her body did not seem to respond to her commands. Horrifyingly, she was still very much aware of what was happening. The hooded individual lifted their wand and the three silent companions sprung up into the air, floating like some ghastly marionette show. Riya managed to get a better look at her captor, it was undoubtedly a man, but she could not see his face.</p><p>            The hooded man turned around and began walking. Please just leave us here, thought Riya desperately. To her horror, with a flick of his wand the man made them all follow him silently in the air. He led them through another corridor and turned a corner, then another corridor and another corner. Before long Riya found herself floating towards the infamous second-floor girls’ lavatory.</p><p>            Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom, she thought. Perhaps this guy doesn’t know about Myrtle, and she would scream and raise the alarm. Her hopes died as they entered the lavatory and Myrtle was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>            Riya had never been inside this bathroom. She had been warned ahead of time – on her very first day at Hogwarts in fact – not to set foot inside it. Myrtle’s notorious wails and whines kept any sane person at Hogwarts away from this place. It was gloomy and gross in here. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched, and one of them was dangling off its hinges. It was completely dark as the candles had burned out in their holders.</p><p>            The man stopped and stood in front of one of the sinks. Riya had no clue what he was doing until he began to speak. It wasn’t English though. The noise the man made resembled more of a hissing sound, similar to that of a snake. To Riya’s shock, the tap in front of the man glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. The sink itself descended into the ground below and revealed a large pipe, wide enough for a man to slide into.</p><p>            Tears flooded Riya’s eyes now as realisation hit her. She was being dragged into the Chamber of Secrets. It was all real. The Lost Child had been biding his time and now, that elf, Jacob, and Riya were going to be his first victims…</p><p>            The man proceeded to lower himself into the pipe and let go. The trio floated behind him into the pipe. They rushed down a dark, slimy slide. Riya could see other, smaller pipes branching off theirs. The dark shaft curved and swerved deeper and deeper below the school. Riya was now choking on her tears. As the pipe levelled out, she could hear the man landing with a thud on the wet floor of a dark stone tunnel. His captives came out right behind him.</p><p>            They then sped forward, along the tunnel and through – what appeared to be – a cleared path in the rubble of a caved-in portion of it. It bent again and again and, just as Riya thought it might go on forever, the tunnel ended. A solid wall on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, gleaming emeralds appeared ahead.</p><p>            The man whispered the same hiss he had muttered in the bathroom above. The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight.</p><p>            Her face now dry, stunned by not only the curse but with shock and fear, Riya was led into a long, dimly lit chamber, its ceiling supported by towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents. At the other end of the chamber stood a colossal statue of an old, bearded man. At its feet laid a large – perhaps fifty feet long –  skeleton of a hideous snake, with fangs as big as daggers. Riya noticed a small fire lit by one of the statue’s legs. Three dark figures sat around it in silence as Riya was made to float through the air towards them.</p><p>            ‘Took you a while,’ said a man, one of the three surrounding the small flame. Riya now noticed they were two men and a woman. ‘Ah but I see you brought us friends, haven’t you?’ he said as he noticed Riya and the others. He was very large, had small dull eyes, long muscular arms, and a thick beard.</p><p>            The hooded man grunted at him.</p><p>            ‘Look at that,’ said the other man behind him. He had a pallid, doughy face and tiny eyes. ‘Two students and, well, is that the elf you’ve been mentioning? Bloody hell it’s old… you’d think Potter could afford a better one than that.’</p><p>            The woman, a stocky, sloping-shouldered, evil-looking thing, got up from her chair. She could have been the man’s sister. She walked over and examined Riya. ‘Isn’t that the lass who stopped you at Hogsmeade?’ she asked the large man.</p><p>            ‘Oh yeah,’ he answered dumbly, ‘that is her. Look where snooping around got you eh?’ he teased.</p><p>            ‘Never mind that now,’ exclaimed the woman. She seemed to be the brains of the operation – which was not saying much. ‘What can you tell us?’ she asked the hooded man.</p><p>            For the first time, their captor spoke. ‘Potter and Longbottom suspect me for sure, but they’ve got nothing. I stunned the elf Potter sent after me.’ His voice sounded shockingly familiar to Riya.</p><p>            ‘And what about the Child? Any progress?’</p><p>            ‘Not really. I delivered our message to the Child. No response as usual.’</p><p>            Riya was thoroughly confused now. She had been sure the hooded man had been the Lost Child. Otherwise, how could he have spoken in Parseltongue?</p><p>            ‘The boss’s not gonna be happy,’ said the doughy-faced man. ‘We promised them we get the Child on our side and we’re not delivering… and Potter’s getting closer.’</p><p>            ‘Well, it was your idea to kill off Madley,’ replied the woman venomously. ‘Now it’s only a matter of time before he’s on to us – ’</p><p>            ‘Okay, but we don’t want anyone else to find out what we’re trying to do right? and my memory charms aren’t perfect,’ he countered. ‘And besides, Potter still thinks we’re dead, doesn’t he? So we’re good.’</p><p>            ‘Until he figures out we’re not dead. Anyhow,’ she now turned to the hooded man, ‘what about… you know… you found them, right? all of them?’</p><p>            ‘Yes. Sealed in that cave by the sea. They’re hungry, famished really. They would be extremely cooperative,’ he replied.</p><p>            ‘Good, good. So you know what to do, give it a couple more weeks and if the Child doesn’t cooperate – well – set our dear friends free.’</p><p>            The two men at her side began to laugh. What the hell were they talking about?</p><p>            ‘I still think we should tell the boss what we know,’ said the large man.</p><p>            ‘And risk whoever it is just tossing us aside and talking to the Child themselves? I think not,’ answered the stocky woman. ‘We don’t know who they are, and we can’t trust them. We want the Heir to the Dark Lord to be fully committed to <em>our</em> cause, so I say screw the “boss” and – ’</p><p>            ‘They had good ideas so far,’ he muttered dully.  ‘We wouldn’t have thought about hiding down here if it wasn’t for them. And we wouldn’t have known the password to get in here either – ’</p><p>            ‘We’re still working with them. We’re just hiding a few tiny bits of information as insurance, is all. Once the Child decides to cooperate, we’ll see where to go from there.’</p><p>            Before the large man could reply again, the hooded figure spoke. ‘Pardon me, if that is everything, I think I should leave now. Don’t want to stay down here too long. That wailing ghost will be back in her stall soon and it would be inconvenient if she sees me.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ agreed the woman.</p><p>            ‘What d’you reckon I should do with them?’ asked the hooded man while motioning at the floating trio. Riya’s heart began to pound frantically.</p><p>            ‘Reckon we should kill’em,’ said the large man.</p><p>            ‘No, you idiot!’ croaked the stocky woman. ‘Even this stupid school would notice if two bloody students just vanish one night, not to mention Potter would know for sure if his elf dies. No, just modify their memories and put them back where you found them.’</p><p>            ‘Right on,’ said the doughy-faced man. He moved forward but was stopped by the woman.</p><p>            ‘Not you. They’re gonna remember everything in a week if <em>you</em> cast it. Let him do it,’ she pointed at the hooded man.</p><p>            The man lowered them to his level and turned around. He moved closer to Riya, so close that she could now see his face.</p><p>            Riya let out a silent gasp in horror; it was HIM.</p><p>            ‘Obliviate!’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Welp, I decided I’m gonna start using this feature.<br/>Thank you all for checking out this story! It's been very exciting writing these last few chapters. I’ve finally (sort of) decided on the overall number of chapters I’ll write for this book (already planning the next one😊).<br/>Next chapter’s gonna be the obligatory "Christmas chapter" (excited for this one) but after that, this book will be keeping with the theme of getting darker and darker.<br/>I might have a tiny little deviation from my regular schedule of every other week just because I’m preparing for graduation right now and therefore EXTREMELY busy. But fret not! once I'm done at my uni I will be able to dedicate more time to this - which would probably mean a new chapter every week!<br/>Hope You all enjoyed this one!<br/>Paul</p><p>PS - check out my Tumblr: https://pvandermeer409.tumblr.com</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. A Crowded Christmas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Hurry up!’</p><p>            ‘Just one moment.’</p><p>            ‘I wanna go to Quality Quidditch Supplies, just pick one.’</p><p>            ‘James, stop rushing your brother. <em>You</em> decided to come with us instead of going to Gringotts, so you need to behave,’ said Ginny.</p><p>            ‘S’not my fault dad wanted to go to the most boring place on earth…’ replied James.</p><p>            ‘Albus, which one do you like?’ asked their mother.</p><p>            Albus couldn’t decide yet. He was standing in front of the bat cage at the Magical Menagerie. Even though owls had been in fashion for decades, Albus had preferred to ask for a pet bat as his birthday/Christmas gift. Owls were noisy and left feathers and droppings everywhere, and besides, bats were much cuter in his opinion.</p><p>            ‘I think I’ll take this one,’ he said and pointed at a handsome Golden-Crowned Flying Fox Bat. It looked at him with large, glassy eyes. This one was perfect.</p><p>            ‘You sure about that? You sure you want a bat?’ asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Yes,’ he answered confidently.</p><p>            ‘Always have to be special, don’t you?’ teased his brother. ‘Everyone’s in Gryffindor; you end up in Slytherin. Everyone gets an owl; you want a bat – ’</p><p>            ‘Shut up.’</p><p>            ‘Stop it James,’ interjected their mum, before James could respond. ‘Alright, I’ll get the lady.’</p><p>            Ginny went and got the kind-looking witch that was working the till. Once she had finished helping another patron with a sick bullfrog, she came over to the large bat cage.  </p><p>            ‘Fancy a bat, eh? These are very popular in South America and the Malay Archipelago, not so much in Europe though… shame really, they’re quite good at delivering mail, s’pecially at night,’ said the witch.</p><p>            ‘Gonçalo Flores has one,’ said Albus. His favourite Brazilian Quidditch player had a famous pet bat named Ronaldo.</p><p>            ‘Er… right you are,’ replied the till witch. ‘This one will be twenty Galleons and three Sickles.’</p><p>            Several moments later, the three of them were walking out of the Magical Menagerie with Albus holding his new pet bat.</p><p>            ‘What are you going to call him Al?’ asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know yet. I’ll think about it today,’ answered Albus.</p><p>            They proceeded over to Quality Quidditch Supplies across the street where James was gawking at all the new brooms and the original Quaffles and Snitches which were signed by famous players. One of the Quaffles proudly bore the signature of Albus’ mum – a fact that she had cared to mention every time they set foot in Quality Quidditch Supplies.</p><p>            Though Albus had been used to the murmurs and pointed fingers that followed him almost everywhere he went with his parents, he did notice they had a tendency to intensify whenever they were present at a particular location that correlated to his parents’ brand of fame. For his mum it was any place related to Quidditch, for his dad it was, well, anywhere with a lot of wizards and witches really.</p><p>            They spent another half hour in the Quidditch shop before Albus’ father joined them with Lily.</p><p>            ‘Did you like Gringotts Lil? Asked Ginny.</p><p>            ‘It was cool,’ replied Albus’ little sister. ‘I liked all the tunnels and vaults, and the Goblins are so weird looking – ’</p><p>            ‘Shhh Lil, don’t say that, that’s rude,’ muttered Harry. He was looking around a bit nervously now. ‘Got your Christmas present Al?’</p><p>            ‘Yep.’ Albus lifted the large cage in which his new bat was sleeping upside-down.</p><p>            ‘Cute bat. Are we all ready to pick out gifts for Bill, Fleur, and the kids then?’</p><p>            Since the extended Weasley family had grown to such massive proportions in recent years, Albus’ aunt Hermione had devised a plan for Christmas gift-giving so as to not strain anyone during the holidays. Each core family would pull a note out of a hat – dubbed the Exhorting Hat by Fred and James – with a different core family to which they will solely give gifts. The only exception was their grandmother Molly, who insisted on knitting everyone their own Weasley Christmas jumper. This year Harry and Ginny had pulled Bill and Fleur out of the hat, so they had to buy gifts for them along with Victoire, Dominique, and Louis.</p><p>            ‘What about <em>my</em> Christmas present dad?’ queried James cheekily while eyeing the nearby Nimbus 3003.</p><p>            ‘You? I’ve already got your present,’ replied his dad with a smile and a wink and Ginny.</p><p>            James looked at him suspiciously before dropping the subject. ‘Where are we going next then?’</p><p>            ‘Shall we go to Flourish and Blotts first?’ asked Harry. ‘I figure we could pick up some good book for Dominique.’</p><p>            ‘Sure,’ replied Ginny. ‘Alright then boys, let’s go.’</p><p>            The family continued to walk throughout Diagon Alley on their annual pre-Christmas shopping trip; stopping at the well-known bookstore to pick up an interesting looking book for Albus’ cousin Dominique (<em>Enchantments of the Oriental Occult by Taistealaí Swift</em>), before hopping over to Madam Malkin’s to buy a nice set of dress robes for Victoire. They also purchased a brand-new set of fancy Spell-Checking Quills for Louis – the youngest of the three was due to begin his first year at Hogwarts the following year. After that, they headed over to TerrorTours where Harry and Ginny bought Bill and Fleur a luxurious, all-expenses-paid, three-week-long trip to India.</p><p>            ‘It’s their twentieth anniversary after all,’ exclaimed Ginny. ‘We can splurge a little on a big gift.’</p><p>            ‘They do like their holidays…’ sighed Harry.</p><p>            They ended their day at the cobblestoned shopping district with a warm glass of butterbeer – hot chocolate in the case of Albus and Lily – at the Leaky Cauldron. As the five of them sat down at one of the corner tables of the pub, Albus’ eyes wandered off to the entrance of the inn.</p><p>            The bell dinged as the door opened and two tall blond figures walked in. Albus recognised his best mate from school immediately – the tall, balding man next to him must be his father then, Draco Malfoy. Albus’ own father never spoke much about him despite them having gone to Hogwarts together. Regardless, it was quite a well-known fact that the two, though cordial these days, did not get along during their time at Hogwarts. Scorpius’ dad was a notorious ex-Death Eater and though he, along with his family, did abandon Voldemort’s cause before his downfall, the Malfoys were now shunned in almost all wizarding circles. They were still quite wealthy enough to subsist off their fortunes and properties for the rest of their lives of course, but they nevertheless lived a very private and secluded life.</p><p>            ‘Hey Scorpius!’ called Albus, waving his hand at his friend. His father choked a little on his butterbeer before giving Albus a reprehensive look. It was too late; Scorpius had spotted his friend from across the pub and was now leading his – very apprehensive looking – father by the hand over to the Potters’ table.</p><p>            ‘Hi Albus, James, Mr and Mrs Potter,’ said Scorpius politely as they reached Albus’ booth.</p><p>            ‘Potter,’ Scorpius’ father greeted quietly.</p><p>            ‘Hi Malfoy, how are you doing?’ replied Harry stiffly.</p><p>            ‘Alright,’ replied Draco equally tonelessly.</p><p>            ‘How’s… how’s your wife – er – doing?’ started Ginny awkwardly.</p><p>            ‘Astoria is still quite ill I’m afraid.’</p><p>            ‘Sorry to hear that…’ said Harry.</p><p>            ‘We’re going to get me a Nuntillud for Christmas!’ blurted Scorpius suddenly. ‘You know that thing that’s like sending a letter but faster. At that new place: Magicae Modern that opened across from Fortescue’s.’</p><p>            ‘Oh yeah, that’s cool,’ replied Albus. ‘Hey Scorpius, look what I got for Christmas.’ He lifted the cage that rested at his feet so that Scorpius could see the snoozing bat inside it. Their parents, now awkwardly silent, watched the two boys’ conversation unfolding.</p><p>            ‘Oooh that’s sick mate!’ exclaimed Scorpius. ‘What’re you gonna call – ’</p><p>            ‘Scorpius,’ his father cut him off gently, ‘I’d like to be home in time for supper. We must hurry now, if you could say goodbye to your little friend.’</p><p>            ‘Okay… Bye Al, see you at school!’ called Scorpius as his father led him off.</p><p>            Harry appeared to be waiting a little to make sure the Malfoys were out of earshot before turning to his son: ‘Did you have to call them over Al?’</p><p>            ‘Oh, leave him alone,’ intercepted Ginny, ‘That’s his friend, he’s allowed to talk to him if he wants.’</p><p>            ‘Sure, he’s <em>allowed</em>, but I would rather not make clumsy small-talk with his dad is all…’ </p><p>            ‘Hey dad,’ said Lily softly after a moment of silence, ‘why couldn’t we go to that Nuntillud shop?’</p><p>            James snorted loudly. ‘Dad’s a bit embarrassed to go there Lil.’</p><p>            ‘What? Why?’</p><p>            ‘Because that Erasmese guy – or whatever his name is – who runs that joint wiped the floor with him in front of half the Ministry!’</p><p>            ‘He didn’t wipe the floor with me. It was a friendly duel and he got lucky,’ corrected Harry.</p><p>            Ginny was smiling now too. ‘He’s a really good sport about it actually.’</p><p>            ‘Which makes dad even more pissed at him,’ laughed James.</p><p>            ‘Language James.’ Their father was now a bit red in the face.</p><p>            ‘How <em>did</em> he beat you dad?’ inquired Albus.</p><p>            ‘He used high trickery and deception.’</p><p>            ‘He switched his wand for a twig and your dad didn’t notice,’ explained Ginny.</p><p>            Albus, James, and Lily burst into laughter.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, yeah, okay, come on, it’s getting late. Papa Malfoy’s right it’s almost dinner time.’</p><p>*</p><p>Albus was woken up on the morning of the 24<sup>th</sup> by a thin ray of sunshine that shot from between the thick curtains in his bedroom. Erebus, his new bat, was already back from his nightly escapades. He got up and watched Erebus sleeping in his cage on one of his closets in the darkest corner of his bedroom.</p><p>            Albus’ room was a handsome one. It had light grey walls and a dark wooden floor. Albus’ large bed stood amply in the middle of the room, across from a beautiful black hearth. Next to the window stood Albus’ desk which was covered with school supplies and unopened books. Though not as big and wide as James’ room, it was still quite large and Albus had no issues fitting a big bat cage in with his other possessions.</p><p>            His bedroom used to belong to Regulus Black. Regulus was the younger brother of Albus’ father’s godfather, Sirius. Albus had heard that Regulus had been the first to realise Voldemort’s ‘great secret’ – as his father had called it – and thus he had been one of the ‘few brave and good’ Slytherins. Or so everyone used to say, before Albus himself got sorted into the house. Now everyone around him kept bringing up how Slytherin was ‘actually okay to be in’ and how ‘it shows that the lad has a good head for politics!’</p><p>            Bunch of hypocrites…</p><p>            Nevertheless, Albus now found the previous owner of his bedroom – and indeed the previous owners of their entire house – a whole lot more interesting than he had used to. When he got back home a couple of weeks ago, he had decided to occupy himself by exploring the history of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He spent some time up in the attic where his parents had stored all the relics that used to belong to the Blacks.</p><p>            Albus had found all kinds of rubbish up there. Things such as old jewellery, ancient books about family lines and blood purity, a folded tapestry that displayed the black family line with certain members – no doubt ones considered blood traitors – blasted off.  He even found a surprisingly loud portrait of an old woman which screamed on and on about ‘vermin and blood traitors and broods of filth!’ Her loud screeches had eventually summoned his father from downstairs to shut her up.</p><p>            Albus had since promised his dad not to wander about in the attic anymore – fearing that he might stumble upon some cursed object by mistake. Ever since then he had occupied himself by feeding and petting Erebus along with helping his mother decorate the house for Christmas.</p><p>            The entire extended Weasley family was coming over for Christmas Eve that night, along with Teddy Lupin and his grandmother Andromeda. Hagrid had been invited as well, but he had claimed he preferred to stay at Hogwarts for the holiday. Weirdly enough, Albus had overheard his parents one night saying that, according to Professor McGonagall, Hagrid had left the school a week prior.</p><p>            Albus got up from his bed with a stretch and a yawn. He glanced at Erebus snoozing in his cage again before exiting his room and walking over to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Ten minutes later he was sat at the kitchen table eating his favourite brand of cereal – <em>Flavius’ Flavourful Fascinations</em> – colourful, sugary breakfast cereals which came in various forms of magical creatures that changed colours progressively as you ate. His mother did not approve of him eating too much of these, but Albus knew that Kreacher always complied to go and get him some for his breakfast.</p><p>            He glanced at the clock on the wall to his right, 10:30. Albus’ grandmother Molly would be coming soon. She was to cook Christmas dinner for everyone tonight. Kreacher had graciously (after numerous protests) accepted an evening off to allow Molly free reign in the kitchen – also, so he could enjoy some time off on Christmas Eve.</p><p>            ‘Good morning – oh REALLY! You’re eating this rubbish again??’ his mother called at him as she entered the room.</p><p>            ‘Sorry! I didn’t want to bother Kreacher too much on his – ’</p><p>            ‘Hogwash – ’</p><p>            ‘Oh, let him have it just today won’t you?’ said Molly from behind Ginny. His grandmother was always much more lenient with him than his parents. ‘Care to help me in the kitchen today Al? I could use some help with the potatoes.’</p><p>            ‘Sure Nan, but I can’t use magic outside of school…’ replied Albus.</p><p>            ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine dear; you’re surrounded by magic here the Ministry won’t be able to tell.’</p><p>            Ginny gave her mother a disapproving look before saying: ‘Fine. Just be careful alright? Merlin’s knickers, you would’ve never let <em>me </em>use magic at home when I was his age…’</p><p>            ‘I guess I’ve grown soft in my old age,’ replied Molly with a smile.</p><p>            ‘Hey Ginny darling do you need some help with your plumbing? Your toilet’s being awfully slow about its business!’ came Grandpa Arthur’s voice from above.</p><p>            ‘I see dad’s back to picking apart my house again…’ sighed Ginny as she left the room with her wand out. ‘Leave it alone, will you?’</p><p>            The rest of Albus’ day was spent learning to peel potatoes with a flick of his wand (some of them burst into flames) and how to make plates wash themselves (he broke ten plates which were quickly mended by his Nan). By the time everybody had arrived for dinner however, Albus had pretty much mastered the art of handless dishwashing.</p><p>            The already large table, as well as the large kitchen, both had to be magically extended for the massive<br/>Weasley family to fit in. No less than 27 people came over for Christmas. The cramped kitchen was full of the smells of Nana Weasley’s fine cooking: turkey, Yorkshire Pudding, and roast potatoes and vegetables.</p><p>            Albus was sitting between James and Rose, listening to the adults talk about politics while sipping on his pumpkin juice. He felt slightly light-headed due to the heat and the stuffy atmosphere.</p><p>            ‘I’m telling you, if Zabini doesn’t stop saying my wife is “of a more mundane background” he might one day find some of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes’ love potions infused with some troll essence in his morning cuppa,’ said Uncle Ron.</p><p>            ‘That would be breaking <em>so </em>many laws and regulations…’ responded Aunt Hermione.</p><p>            ‘<em>And</em> extremely funny,’ replied Ron. ‘Tell me you wouldn’t love to see that knob full-on making out with a mountain troll in the middle of the Atrium.’</p><p>            ‘Oh shush,’ his wife said scoldingly, though she couldn’t help but grin a little.</p><p>            To Albus’ relief, when dinner ended everybody decided to climb upstairs to the drawing room for tea (or something stronger). The large Christmas Tree that Albus had helped his mother decorate a week ago was standing proudly in the middle of the room. Shiny ornaments and Golden Snitches floated about and a particularly ugly Garden Gnome, stunned, posed, painted gold, and dressed in a tutu (a family tradition) was displayed at the very top of the tree.</p><p>            Once everybody sat down on the sofas and chairs which were scattered around the tree, and after Harry had bewitched a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky, some eggnog, and a pitcher of pumpkin juice to go around and fill everyone’s cups, the opening of the presents commenced. Albus was glad to find out that this year his Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione were chosen as their gift givers. They were always the best ones. Albus held his present in his hands. It was a large package that rattled slightly.</p><p>            ‘Well? Open it!’ said his uncle.</p><p>            Albus unwrapped his present to find a handsome marble Wizard's Chess set and, to his surprise, another smaller package underneath it. He glanced at his uncle who gave him an encouraging smile. Albus unwrapped the second package to discover a small silvery metal tablet with a piece of blank parchment imbedded into one of its sides.</p><p>            ‘Got you all Nuntilluds too,’ explained Ron proudly. Now you can write to your mum and dad in seconds and, if any of your mates have one as well, you can write to them too!’</p><p>            Albus glanced over to his sister and brother who were both holding their own shiny new devices along with James’ broom polishing kit and Lily’s living-talking dollhouse.</p><p>            ‘Thanks Uncle Ron!’ called Albus.</p><p>            ‘Don’t mention it! T’was free anyhow, I’m one of the company’s sponsors you see.’</p><p>            ‘Yeah, just be careful about what you write in it alright?’ interjected his father, Harry. ‘You never know who’s listening in on your conversations…’</p><p>            ‘Rubbish, they’ll be fine…’</p><p>            His uncle and father sprung into a debate about the safety of Nuntilluds. Albus was not listening anymore, however. He ran over to the desk by the window and grabbed a quill from one of the drawers. He dipped the quill in an ink bottle and wrote down ‘<em>Scorpius Malfoy</em>’ at the top of the parchment before writing ‘<em>Hey Scorpius, are you there?</em> ’ right underneath.</p><p>            Before long, Albus’ Nuntillud vibrated, lit up, and the familiar neat handwriting of his best mate from school showed up below his: ‘<em>Merlin’s naval! Al, you got one too??</em>’</p><p>            ‘That’s brilliant! I love it!’ he called at his uncle who beamed at him. ‘Oh, and the chess set of course…’</p><p>            Albus quickly sunk into a full conversation with his friend. Only stopping to see which gift his cousin Rose got (a book titled <em>Prefects Who Gained Power</em> from their Uncle Percy – ‘for future reference!’), and to receive his newly knit Christmas jumper from his grandmother (emerald green with silver snake-like letters spelling his name).</p><p>            ‘<em>Yeah Christmas here is kind of dull and depressing…</em>’ wrote Scorpius. ‘<em>My grandad is of course appalled that I’m friends with YOU. I always hated the way he treats me, says I’m too soft and weak, he doesn’t like my mum either, I can tell…</em>’</p><p>            ‘<em>How’s your mum doing anyhow?</em>’ replied Albus.</p><p>            ‘She’s still ill… it’s that stupid curse, I wish I had my old mum back. She’s so weak and tired all the time…’</p><p>            Albus had no idea how to respond. He hated the thought of his best friend and his poor mother suffering like that. Having to tolerate the presence and comments of his bigoted grandfather and the horrible blood curse that afflicted his mother’s family. Scorpius had confided in Albus about a month back that his mother had been very ill. It was that that assured Albus of the bond the two had shared, that private and delicate moment.</p><p>            Albus wished he could have his friend over for Christmas, wished he could somehow ease his pain and boredom. Somehow, he doubted his father would be too pleased taking in a Malfoy…</p><p>            ‘James, can you come with me for a second?’ said Harry once everybody had finished with their presents.</p><p>            ‘What for?’ said James who had been midway of pulling on his own purple jumper jesting loudly with their cousin Fred.</p><p>            ‘You’ll see…’ replied their dad with a meaningful look at their mum.</p><p>            James got up from the floor and followed his father out of the room. Fred – now looking more and more like a lost puppy without his favourite partner in crime – turned to Albus for entertainment. ‘Who’re you writing to there?’ he asked as he tried grabbing Albus’ Nuntillud.</p><p>            ‘Nobody,’ retorted Albus pulling his device away.</p><p>            ‘He’s talking to his friend Scorpius Malfoy, Fred,’ explained Rose from Albus’ other side. ‘How’s his mum doing? With that blood curse and all?’</p><p>            ‘How in Merlin’s nightgown do you know about that??’</p><p>            ‘She knows everything that’s going on that one,’ interjected Ron from behind them, ‘gets it from her mum bless her…’</p><p>            ‘I <em>know</em> because their branch of the Greengrass family is known for their blood malediction that runs in the family,’ clarified Rose. ‘I figured since you’ve been looking sad lately…’</p><p>            ‘Er, yes she’s not doing too well… There’s no cure apparently.’</p><p>            ‘Shame…’ sighed Uncle Ron. ‘I never liked her husband, but Astoria seems nice enough… And her son is a good kid too right Rosie? Shame old Lucious couldn’t catch a blood curse or something – ’</p><p>            ‘RON!’ shrieked Aunt Hermione disapprovingly.</p><p>            ‘What he’s an awful old senile f – ’</p><p>            ‘Shhh hey Harry’s thingy – er – Nuntillud, it’s doing something, vibrating and flashing lights,’ said Ginny. ‘He forgot it here – typical…’ She pulled the noisy device out from one of the couch’s cushions.</p><p>            ‘That’s just what it does when you get a message,’ said Ron.</p><p>            ‘Oh… Al could you go get your dad real quick?’ asked his mum. ‘He’s in his study with James.’</p><p>            Albus got up and left the room. He climbed the silent stairs up to the third floor. His father’s handsome study was on the far end of the hall. Albus walked to the ornate dark door and knocked on it once. He heard a chair creak before the door opened and his father’s head popped from behind the black door.</p><p>            ‘Yes?’ asked Harry.</p><p>            ‘Your Nuntillud’s going off, you forgot it downstairs. Mum wanted me to come get you,’ replied Albus.</p><p>            ‘Oh – er – yeah sure I’ll be right down. James,’ he now turned to his other son who was sitting at the chair in front of their father’s desk, ‘I’ll be back in a minute. Wait here and don’t touch anything!’</p><p>            They both headed back down to the drawing room where the rest of the family was sitting. As he walked through the door Harry turned to Ginny.</p><p>            ‘Who’s it from?’ he asked.</p><p>            ‘It’s from your lot at Malmire, they say all is well and that there’s nothing new to report. They also say “Merry Christmas,”’ replied his wife.</p><p>            ‘Alright good,’ said Harry. ‘Tell them Happy Christmas from me. I’m going back upstairs for you-know-what. Be back in a jiffy.’</p><p>            As his father closed the door and darted back upstairs, Albus heard his mother mutter: ‘Strange, I don’t think I’ve seen this handwriting before on his other messages…’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Phew...<br/>So through sheer willpower, I managed to stick to my schedule even with my 10000000000 exams/projects to wrap up.<br/>It was fun writing this one. Can you guess what Harry is doing with James in his office? 😉 (you'll find out next chapter).<br/>I still have a lot of stuff to do before graduating next week so there is a small chance the next chapter will be delayed a little but I would still say expect it before the two-week mark.<br/>Hope you all enjoyed this one!<br/>Paul</p><p>PS - check out my Tumblr: https://pvandermeer409.tumblr.com</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Cloaks and Monsters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Right, where was I?’ said Harry as he re-entered his study and closed the door behind him. His son James, who was sitting at the chair in front of his desk, stiff as a board, jumped a little and turned around to look at his dad.</p><p>            ‘Oh, you – er – said you were proud of me and that I truly lived to my grandad’s name and that I should keep what you’re about to tell me a secret,’ he replied sheepishly.</p><p>            ‘Good,’ stated Harry sitting down at his desk across from his eldest son. ‘Now, your mother thinks I’m bonkers for doing this that early – and maybe I am – but I’ve always thought that Hogwarts was just as much a place for mischief as it was a place of learning. You’ve proven to me that you are capable of both, and I feel I can now trust you with an object that is very dear to my heart, something that is very precious to our family and to the wizarding world as a whole.’</p><p>            ‘Blimey dad… Sometimes I feel like you never take anything seriously, you know?’ his son tried to lighten the mood.</p><p>            Harry, ignoring his son’s wisecracks, reached over to a nearby drawer and pulled out a silvery grey, fluid-like cloth that was strange to the touch – like water woven into fabric.</p><p>            James looked at the Cloak of Invisibility with mild surprise and confusion. ‘It’s… a weird old blanket?’</p><p>            ‘This,’ explained his dad, ‘is an invisibility cloak. But it’s not just any old invisibility cloak, this one – you see – is the perfect invisibility cloak.’</p><p>            ‘What – ’</p><p>            ‘This cloak has been passed down through generations in our family, from father to son over the centuries. Unlike other cloaks, this one will not fail you. It will not fade or tear or lose its function in any form. This one right here is the reason I got away with so much during my time at Hogwarts – well that and the fact that Albus Dumbledore had a soft spot for me,’ he said with a wink.</p><p>            ‘I – dad – I… well… This isn’t some sort of a test, is it? I’m not supposed to refuse it and show that I’ve got <em>integrity</em> or something right?’</p><p>            Harry chuckled. ‘Not at all. It’s all yours. I figured you’re already getting into enough trouble, and you’re not going to stop, so I might as well assist you a little. Maybe prevent you from actually getting expelled. Here, go ahead try it on.’ Harry reached over his desk handing over the cloak to James.</p><p>            James paused and looked at the cloak for a second before letting a devilish smile spread over his face. He grabbed the cloak out of his father’s hand quickly – as if Harry might regret this gift at any moment – and threw the Hallow over his shoulders.</p><p>            Harry grinned at the sight of his son’s head floating over a seemingly empty chair in front of him. James looked down and let out a shriek.</p><p>            ‘Merlin’s scrotum dad – ’</p><p>            ‘Language James…’</p><p>            ‘This must be SUPER valuable! How come you don’t want it anymore?’</p><p>            ‘I don’t really need it any longer to be honest,’ replied Harry. ‘I can become practically invisible without the cloak’s assistance by now and I figured I should honour our family tradition this Christmas.’</p><p>            ‘That’s so COOL, thanks dad! And here I was thinking you were a lame old fart… no offence.’</p><p>             ‘A little taken, but nonetheless,’ said Harry indignantly, ‘I do have a couple rules for you. And be warned, if I so much as catch a whiff that you’re breaking my rules, that cloak will be out of your hands before you can say Quidditch. Am I making myself clear?’</p><p>            The serious tone in his father’s voice seemed to have sobered James up a bit. ‘Er – yeah, hearing you loud and clear.’</p><p>            ‘First off, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Meaning don’t go sneaking into the girls’ showers, or cheating on exams, or into the Forbidden Forest, or anything that wouldn’t be considered good fun by me. Second, I want you to watch over your brother and, when the time comes, your sister every now and again to make sure they aren’t up to anything dangerous – Merlin knows you’ve all inherited the danger-loving-idiot gene from me…’</p><p>            ‘Right, got it,’ replied James, now smiling faintly.</p><p>            ‘Third, you are not to tell anybody about this cloak or what it is. Hide it in your dormitory, deep inside your trunk and never speak of it to anyone.’</p><p>            ‘Can I tell Fred and Ton about it?’</p><p>            ‘Yes, fine, you can tell them but absolutely no one else, not even Hagrid – actually, <em>especially</em> not Hagrid.’</p><p>            James was now grinning widely, ‘And lastly?’</p><p>            ‘And lastly, have fun.’</p><p>            With that being said, James got up from his chair and walked over to his father. It was one of those rare moments where James was emotional enough to actually give his father a hug.</p><p>            ‘Run along now, put it in your room and not a word to anyone, eh?’ said Harry as they parted. </p><p>            Harry grabbed his glass of Firewhisky off his desk and took a swig. He walked over to the window just as his eldest son disappeared behind the door to the hallway. It was raining softly outside again. Harry breathed in, savouring this moment of calmness and the warmth that spread about his body, courtesy of the Firewhisky. He had been consuming way too much of this stuff in recent months. What first was a once-a-week treat to calm himself on the weekends, had now become a bit of a disturbing habit. He couldn’t blame himself. The stress that he had been experiencing the last few months started to get to him. Even though most of the Wizarding World had seemed to forget about the Madley case by now, Harry himself kept obsessing over it (to his wife’s great annoyance). He felt he had been somehow personally responsible for this mess. Had he not spared some of the lowly Death Eaters from gaol back in the day, had he not allowed Travers to get away, this entire saga of misery could have been avoided.</p><p>            Whatever Montgomery was up to he had been hiding it well. Every time Kreacher came back from his surveillance mission he could only report on the everyday tribulations of an average teacher at Hogwarts. Montgomery woke up at 6:00 AM sharp, had breakfast at the Great Hall, taught his classes with almost robotic precision, had lunch and dinner, and spent the rest of his time in his office off of the first-floor corridor – the one that had used to belong to Professor McGonagall – reading articles in <em>Transfiguration Today</em> and grading homework before going to bed. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that would warrant any further action. Harry could not make any arrests or interviews without evidence, after-all, and the lack thereof had been pestering him for a while now.</p><p>            As for the interestingly named Thomas Delamont… Well, he too had been as normal a student at Hogwarts – albeit a bit on the moody side – as Montgomery had been a teacher. Both Kreacher and Neville had been observing him closely, and he did not seem to be behaving oddly at all anymore. Harry figured that Montgomery modified his memory in some fashion and that the boy had been a victim of this plot rather than one of the conspirators. Still, it was an interesting coincidence that, of all the boys at Hogwarts, this particular one – the one who had been under Harry’s radar since the beginning – had been chosen by the culprits for their shenanigans. Something did not sit right with Harry, there had to be something, some bit of information he was missing.</p><p>            A thunder struck somewhere far. The weather turned a bit stormier now, and Harry’s glass ran empty. He would have to get back downstairs for another. Harry sighed and paced over to the door. As he walked back towards the staircase, he could hear James and Fred moving about on the floor above him, undoubtedly playing with James’ extraordinary new possession. Harry descended the stairs at a slow, tired pace.</p><p>            Thunder struck again, this time a little closer. Rain hammered on a nearby window. Harry took another hopeful swig of his empty glass, wishing for another droplet of warm, amber liquid. I have to control myself better, he thought, this is getting ridiculous.</p><p>            Another thunderstrike, closer still. A storm was coming no doubt. Was there a storm on the forecast this week? He couldn’t remember. Harry reached the first-floor landing and turned.</p><p>            *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*</p><p>            That definitely wasn’t rain. Someone was at the door, banging furiously to be let in. Harry, suddenly on alert, pulled out his wand and turned back towards the stairs. He descended another flight of stairs and walked through the dimly lit long hallway towards the door.</p><p>            *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*</p><p>            ‘What the hell?’ he heard Ginny call from above him. ‘Who at this hour on Christmas Eve…?’</p><p>            Harry got to the door a moment later.</p><p>            *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*</p><p>            ‘Who is it?’ he called from behind the door, his wand gripped tightly in his right hand.</p><p>            ‘It’s Dean! Dean Thomas!’ called a familiar voice from the other side of the front door. ‘Lemme in Harry, will you?’</p><p>            Harry made a baffled face – oh God no, what is it now? – and turned the handle. Dean walked in hurriedly, dripping from head to toe. He looked mortified.</p><p>            ‘We’re effed Harry – ’</p><p>            ‘Er – Happy Christmas to you as well Dean – ’</p><p>            ‘No, you don’t understand – ’</p><p>            ‘Hey what’s going on?’ asked Ginny worriedly from behind Harry.</p><p>            ‘I don’t know,’ answered Harry, ‘We’re about to find out – ’</p><p>            ‘Dementors!’ yelled Dean.</p><p>            ‘What Dementors?’ asked Ron who appeared behind Ginny, accompanied by Hermione, Teddy, and Molly II.</p><p>            ‘Dementors, hundreds – if not thousands – of them! They’re all out and they’re all coming in this direction!!’ called Dean. He sounded panicky.</p><p>            ‘That’s impossible!’ squeaked Hermione. ‘We sealed them all in that cave Voldemort used to hide the Locket in!’</p><p>            ‘Well somebody – somehow – let them all out! Please, I need you to come Harry.’</p><p>            Harry’s head was spinning slightly. He had a lot of trouble processing the information he was being presented with at the moment. Hermione, McGonagall, Kingsley, and he had worked relentlessly on gathering every single Dementor that had been unleashed by Voldemort and seal them tightly in that cursed, dark, cold cave by the seaside along with the Inferi. It had been nineteen years since, and nobody, apart from these select few, had even known about the cave’s location, let alone how to unseal it.</p><p>            ‘Harry – ’</p><p>            ‘Dean,’ Harry turned to his old schoolmate and Head Auror, ‘gather every single Auror you can find. Bring them – ’</p><p>            ‘Already told Berrycloth to do that,’ answered Dean. ‘He’s the one who found out about the escape. I also sent a message via Patronus to Seamus to gather all of the old Dumbledore’s Army crowd.’</p><p>            ‘Good. Good. Show me the way then – ’</p><p>            ‘I’m coming with you,’ said Ron.</p><p>            ‘Me too,’ added Hermione.</p><p>            ‘Don’t even think about it – ’</p><p>            ‘I’m the goddamn Minister for Magic, I can go wherever I – ’</p><p>            ‘I’m coming too,’ stated Ginny.</p><p>            ‘No Ginny, I need you to stay here – ’ started Harry.</p><p>            ‘If you think I’m gonna let you run off and – ’</p><p>            ‘No Ginny listen to me. This might be a trick. A diversion. Something big to draw me and everybody I know out of our homes to fight while somebody goes and grabs our kids, or worse. I need you to stay here with your mum and dad and Andromeda, make sure nobody comes knocking while I’m away. Ron, Hermione,’ he turned to his two old friends, ‘come with us if you wish but be prepared. I know you haven’t practised combative magic for a while now. Molly, I need you to go call every of-age person here to see if they would come and help – ’</p><p>              ‘I’m almost of age, I’m coming too – ’ began Molly.</p><p>            ‘’Fraid not Molly. Not unless your dad allows it, which I doubt. No, don’t argue, just go, NOW! Teddy,’ Harry spoke to his godson last, ‘are you coming with me?’</p><p>            ‘To hell and back,’ replied Edward Lupin courageously while pulling out his own wand. Harry nodded in appreciation. He had been training Teddy secretly in defensive magic since the week after Hallowe’en to compensate for his alleged poor performance in his Auror training. Though he did have a bit of trouble when it came to functioning under pressure, Teddy did display a decent amount of talent. Harry knew he would not miss a chance to fight alongside him. He also knew that he would do anything in his power to protect the boy, keep him alive for Remus’ sake, even if it killed him.</p><p>            Less than half a minute later everybody Harry had summoned, Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy, Audrey, George, and Angelina, all assembled at the entrance to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.</p><p>            As they stepped into the cold, stormy night Harry yelled over the loud, rippling rain: ‘You know, Dean. Just once I wish you’d pop by with some good news for a change!’</p><p>*</p><p>Rain poured heavily onto the grassy hills near Nether Loxwich. In the distance, some quarter of a mile or so away, the small lights of the Muggle village gleamed and flickered through the darkness. Lightning struck nearby trees with excessive frequency, and the thunders that followed sounded unnaturally strong. The fine people of Nether Loxwich would have been suspicious of the unusual cold and harsh weather were it not for the fact that they had all been struck by the sudden and intense urge to leave the village immediately. Taking their children and pets and leaving all their possessions behind, running off to the other side of the country for the next few days. </p><p>            Harry Potter, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, stood at the head of a small army of witches and wizards. To his right his most loyal friends, Ron and Hermione. To his left, Dean Thomas – the Head Auror under him – and his godson Edward Lupin. All stood wet and shivering in the cold night showers. The low humming of a thousand rattling breaths echoed in the distance.</p><p>            ‘Can you hear them coming?’ Harry asked his fellow combatants. They all nodded in unison. ‘Right then, get ready.’</p><p>            Harry pointed his wand at his throat and began to speak to the crowd behind him. ‘Get ready everyone they are almost here. We must stand our ground. Don’t break formation.’ Harry felt like he was the Gryffindor Quidditch Team captain again, readying his team for another match. ‘We cannot let the Dementors reach London under any circumstance. Those of us who are able to summon Patronuses please do so once we have them in our field of vision. Those who cannot – it is perfectly understandable we are dealing with a whole lot here – fire is your safest bet. Stick in the middle and don’t let them get near you.’</p><p>            They stood for another minute or so in the gushing rain, silently shaking. </p><p>            ‘So – er – remind me what’s the plan once they get here then?’ asked Ron over the sound of bellowing thunder.</p><p>            ‘I had two separate teams push them towards us, one from the north the other from the south,’ explained Harry. ‘This is the most sparsely populated area in South England I could find on a short notice. Figured it would make the most convenient battleground away from the sea where they can escape and where we won’t have Muggle witnesses or casualties. Once we get them under control, we will push them back towards the cave and seal them again… And I’m gonna make bloody sure that there’s a twenty-four-hour guard duty on that place until we catch the f – ’</p><p>            Harry’s words were cut short by the terrible sight that appeared before him. Hundreds upon hundreds of Dementors, emerging from the darkness, flying through the air towards them. Their horrible breaths sounded supernaturally strong despite the pouring rain and the thunder. They were not alone though. The brigade of Dementors was accompanied by dozens of gaunt, lifeless bodies that ran below; Inferi.</p><p>            ‘Oh, bloody hell… not them too,’ called Ron hopelessly.</p><p>            ‘Stand your ground!’ called Harry. ‘Don’t panic, use Incendio for the Inferi. Are well ready then?!’</p><p>            He looked over his shoulder and around him one last time to reassure his comrades. He saw the fear in their eyes, the hopelessness, he would have preferred not to put so many people in immediate danger… but then again, he needed enough Patronuses to repel pretty much all the Dementors in Britain. Harry turned to the coming horde, chills running down his spine, he forced himself to stare into the face of darkness. He could hear a faint, almost undetectable screaming of a woman – his mother – as if from very far away. At an instant, he was that 13-year-old boy again, standing at the edge of the Great Lake, protecting Sirius. He would not just be protecting one innocent man now; he would be shielding millions from a terrible fate. With all his might Harry thought of his children, his wife, his friends, of the – now so far away – beginning of the night, of his warm fireplace and his whiskey…</p><p>            ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM!!’ he shouted.</p><p>            And out of his wand burst the same familiar stag, a warm, light presence in the cold bottomless darkness that surrounded him. Before long, he heard others all around him call ‘Expecto Patronum!’ one after another. He saw Ron’s Jack Russell terrier, Hermione’s Otter, Teddy’s wolf – of course it’s a wolf, he thought to himself merrily – and others. Silvery, warm, dogs, cats, horses, bulls, monkeys, and other animals surrounded them, protecting them from the cold harsh outside.</p><p>            ‘CHARGE!!!’ he called at once, running forward with everyone at his heels.</p><p>            The Dementors recoiled at the sudden resistance they were facing. They all routed, changing direction, flying up instead of forward.</p><p>            ‘Oh blimey Harry! They’re gonna fly over us!’ called Ron.</p><p>            Harry laughed. ‘Thought about that possibility already. Look to the sky!’</p><p>            A couple dozen Patronuses lit up in the dark cloudy night sky. Their owners, a small brigade of Aurors on brooms, enclosed the horde of Dementors from above. Harry’s other two teams showed up from behind with Patronuses and streams of fire. They were enveloped.</p><p>            Cheers sounded from all around Harry now.</p><p>            ‘It’s not over yet. Now for the Inferi – ’</p><p>            ‘Protego Maxima!’ Harry heard Hermione call out.</p><p>            A vast shield of light blue sprouted from the ground in front of Harry, shielding them from the wave of animated corpses in their way. The Inferi struck the protective wall with the ferocity of a tsunami, but it held.</p><p>            ‘Good one Hermione!’ he shouted. ‘Now, when they’re all enclosed just a little bit tighter, we keep pushing them while the other teams navigate us back to the cave. Keep your eyes on them, they all know what to do!’</p><p>            A moment or two later the rear teams began retreating a little in the direction they came from. Harry and his squadron kept pushing, walking forward at a fast pace.</p><p>            ‘Not too fast now!’ called Harry. ‘We don’t want to rush the teams on the other side!’</p><p>            ‘Oh no,’ said Teddy.</p><p>            ‘What – ’</p><p>            Harry saw what immediately. Several Patronuses flickered in the distance, the Dementors were gaining ground a little.</p><p>            ‘Don’t worry, they’ll hold! Keep concentrating on your own charms!’</p><p>            ‘Harry, I don’t think that – OUCH!’ Hermione tripped on a stone and fell.</p><p>            ‘Oh FUUUUUUU – ’</p><p>            ‘INCENDIO!’ screamed Harry. His stag disappeared, giving way to a colossal torrent of fire that came out of his wand, catching nearby Inferi. It wasn’t enough, Harry heard shrieks of fear from behind him. Patronuses flickered and disappeared, the Dementors’ rattling breath intensified.</p><p>            Harry saw Ron helping Hermione up in the corner of his eye. He saw her escaping his grip and pointing her wand at the ground, muttering something. Harry felt the ground rise beneath him, a large steep hill, wide enough to hold them all, sprouted and carried them all high above the crowd of Inferi. He heard screams of horror as he turned to see one of the wizards at the back falling to his death.</p><p>            ‘NO!!!!’ shrieked Hermione.</p><p>            ‘It’s-too-late-not-your-fault!’ he heard Ron scream before shouting ‘Incendio!’ and lighting up a group of cold dead bodies.</p><p>            ‘Bombarda!’ shouted Harry, exploding another group of Inferi ahead of him.</p><p>            The Dementors were free now. In a single wave, they bypassed the Aurors on top. Going over their wall of Patronuses and coming back at them from above. Harry, in his horror, saw bodies fall from the sky and into the sea of Inferi below.</p><p>            Harry’s ears were ringing, his head hurt, he felt sick. He just led countless – who even knows how many – to their deaths. On Christmas Eve, he uprooted them from their families to die cold, hopeless, and afraid.</p><p>            ‘Bloody hell…’ he heard Teddy whimper.</p><p>            ‘Stay with me! Screw the Dementors we’ll deal with them later; we’ve got to make sure none of the Inferi make it out of here and into a Muggle town!’</p><p>            ‘In case you haven’t noticed we’re not exactly in a position to stop anybody!’ yelled a voice from behind Harry. He recognised Josiah Smith’s voice.</p><p>            ‘I’ve got a plan,’ said Harry. At times of peril Harry always liked to rely on what he did best. He pointed his wand to the sky and ‘Accio broom!’</p><p>            One of the abandoned brooms left hovering by Harry’s sky team shot straight into his hand. ‘Ron, Teddy, Dean,’ Harry turned to the people around him, ‘I need you to do the same and come help me rescue whoever’s left of the other groups. Hermione, can you seal all the Inferi with a dome charm? Protego horribilis should do the trick,’ she nodded at him.</p><p>            ‘Make sure everybody’s okay up here!’ said Harry as he got on his broom. He waited for Ron, Dean, and Teddy to summon their own and then kicked off and shot up in the air.</p><p>            Harry flew alongside his squad, shooting fire at the waves of Inferi underneath and scouting the ground for signs of life. He dodged a Dementor that flew his way.</p><p>            ‘Expecto Patronum!’ The stag appeared again, protecting Harry from any oncoming Dementors. Though many of them had seized the opportunity and fled, some of the Dementors still remained around the battlefield. Furious, hungry, they were out for blood – or souls more like.</p><p>            Harry lowered his broom. Spotting an arm raised among a jumble of smoke, fire, and animated corpses, he reached out his hand and grabbed it.</p><p>            ‘Oh thank god Harry!’ said Ernie Macmillan as Harry pulled him onto his broom. ‘I thought I was toast.’</p><p>            ‘Did anybody else survive from your team?’ asked Harry dreading the answer.</p><p>            ‘Yeah, everybody so far, at least I think so. They’re just routed. We saw your shield go out and your Patronuses die, and my men lost their heart. Began to run! he puffed up. ‘I don’t know what’s happened since.’</p><p>            ‘Let’s get you to safety, I’ll go back for the rest afterwards,’ replied Harry.</p><p>            Harry dropped Ernie off at the island with Ron, Teddy, and Dean bringing an Auror each with them too. As he went back for more, Harry heard Hermione whispering complex enchantments, sealing them all with the Inferi. Good, thought Harry, we can get this under control again.</p><p>            After a few more rounds Harry concluded that there were no more Aurors to rescue. With a heavy heart, he landed back at the – now slightly overflowing – island in the middle of all the chaos.</p><p>            ‘What’s next?’ asked Hermione, looking around at the waves of Inferi they were now trapped with.</p><p>            ‘I think… I hope I remember how to do this…’ answered Harry.</p><p>            ‘Whatever it is, make it quick, I don’t think we can hold on much longer…’ she retorted.</p><p>            Harry breathed in deeply. He had only experienced this spell once in his life. Heck, he had only seen another person perform this spell once in his life; Dumbledore…</p><p>            ‘Let’s hope this doesn’t end up killing us…’ he whispered as he pointed his wand at the sky again and concentrated. ‘Turbine Ignis!’ he called.</p><p>            Through the darkness, fire erupted from his wand: crimson and gold, a ring of fire surrounded the squadron of witches and wizards. Harry moved his wand in a circular motion, raised like a torch, from its tip flames emanated like a vast lasso, encircling them all with warmth.</p><p>            Cheers were being heard again as Harry drove the horrific army away to the edges of the dome. With nowhere to go, no water to protect them from a fiery end, the Inferi surrendered to their fate.</p><p>*</p><p>Exhausted, beaten, and with scorched tips, Harry apparated at the dimly lit square in front of 12 Grimmauld Place. What a horrible night, he thought to himself as he approached his home. Thirteen casualties, most of them young, from Teddy’s class. He had to send people to their family homes and tell their mothers their sons and daughters had just spent the last Christmas they would ever have at home. The very last Christmas, before Harry Potter had summoned them to come die for him. Just like so many others…</p><p>            He hated himself. Hated the feeling that somehow, this had all been his fault. Harry couldn’t grasp how, after nineteen years, Voldemort was still causing so much mayhem and misery from beyond the grave.</p><p>            And it wasn’t over yet. No. Though Harry had managed to eradicate the army of Inferi that had escaped – one plan went right tonight at least; they weren’t anywhere near water – there was still a horde of Dementors on the loose. He imagined the Muggle news would be reporting the same stuff they had been nineteen years ago: dreary weather, unnatural cold, fog, gloom, and mysterious disappearances all around. He would get right on routing all the Dementors tomorrow. Now he just needed to go to bed. That and maybe a glass of Firewhiskey…</p><p>            Harry sighed heavily. He felt so alienated from the relative happiness he felt at the beginning of the night. So detached. It felt as if it had happened in another life. In many ways it did, thought Harry as he climbed up the small steps at the front of his house. In many ways it –</p><p>            He paused suddenly. At the foot of his door laid a big box. Decorated eloquently with ribbons and red paper.</p><p>            ‘What the – ’ he whispered.</p><p>            Approaching the mysterious package, Harry pulled out his wand and lit it. He really did not need any more surprises tonight. There was a note attached to it. Harry raised his wand to see it better. It read:</p><p>          <em>To: Mr Harry Potter, </em></p><p>
  <em>          Merry Christmas! </em>
</p><p>
  <em>          From: the fine residents of Malmire. </em>
</p><p>            Harry made a face. What in the name of Merlin does this mean…?</p><p>            He didn’t have to wait long. As he approached the package further, it opened, revealing the only sight that could have made this night any worse. The only sight that was less welcome than the rattling breaths of a thousand Dementors. Worse than the wails and cries of dying Aurors. Worse than his own death.</p><p>            Harry’s hand shot up to his face, but it was too late. He leaned on the railing and retched the contents of his stomach over it. A deep voice spoke with booming leer: ‘Stay out of our lives Potter, or we’ll come visit yours!’ as the shrunken heads of Dennis Creevey and his men gazed at Harry from inside the box.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Well... so that was a dark one...<br/>I'm sorry for abusing Harry so much lol I promise his life would get better at some point XD <br/>Yeah, so it seems that his little mission to Malmire (the dark settlement in Ontario) had failed, and he made some interesting new enemies. Next chapter, its Riya again :) we'll see how she's doing coming back to Hogwarts. <br/>I just finished at my uni which means I will be having more free time to write. Though I will be continuing this work with full steam still, I am working on a little side project - an original horror story set in the wizarding world (completely original characters). We'll see how it turns out. <br/>Hope you all enjoyed this one!<br/>Paul</p><p>PS - check out my Tumblr: https://pvandermeer409.tumblr.com</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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